The Chosen
by SothernVanmPhrye
Summary: There are moments in time where lives are changed forever; happy moments that are suddenly twisted and contorted until the small amount happiness that once resided within the moment have been brutally replaced with hurt, despair, and anger. Harry/OC AU
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 'Moments'

The world is filled with people, people who go about day by day, hour by hour, living their lives. Lives that are filled with moments. Moments filled with happiness, joy and peace. Moments filled with hate, bitterness, and sorrow. There are moments in time where lives are changed forever; happy moments that are suddenly twisted and contorted until the small amount happiness that once resided within the moment have been brutally replaced with hurt, despair, and anger. Most of these moments are based on arguments, misspoken words, and short tempers; yet there are some moments that are twisted and turned by forces that are out of the control of the moment's participants. Such moments happen with increasing frequency as the world is pushed further and further in the brink of multicultural war. One such moment happened on July 31st at 7 in the evening. This evening started out as any other evening for two different families, each woman in the families are pregnant, and have both gone into labor the night before. For twenty hours these women felt the pains of their children moving closer to life outside of the womb, but with little success. At 6:30 on the evening of the 31st, on of these women began the last stages of her labor, fifteen minuets later the other woman followed. 7 o'clock in the evening on July 31st two piercing cries could be heard in the homes of these two women. A boy and a girl had been born on the same day, of the same month at the same time of day. These seemingly harmless similarities have long lasting consequences. Two people will bridge the gap between good and evil, they will find comfort within each other when all else seems to be void of hope. They will end the war; they will be the ones that the world turns to when all other paths have crumbed to nothing. Their lives will be filled with moments where they will have to prove their strength and courage or fall into a pit of despair. There are individuals whom wish to know what their future holds, and then there are some who wish that they never found out the truth. Moments of weakness lead to moments of choice all based on a moment of wanting the truth. This is the story of their moments.

Yet a time shall come

She of life shall be born

She of darkness shall rise

She whom brings both life and death

She shall be killed yet she shall live

From the depths of hell

From the light of Heaven

Her fate is unclear

But her destiny is bright

Bring her to him

Or to he she shall come

Ether way she shall Live

July 31st 6:59 pm-Godrick's Hollow

"Push dear! Just a little bit further, I can see the top of the head. James, the babe's got your hair…" the midwife trying to talk an exhausted Lily through the last few moments of her extended labor.

"Well," James replied from his station at his wife's side. "I hope that it's a boy. No girl should have my mop."

Lily had been paying attention only half way, after twenty hours of painful labor all she wanted was to have her child in her arms and to sleep until the weariness and pain melted away.

"Come on dear! Just one more!" James encouraged his tried wife. With one more half-hearted push, Lily collapsed at the sound of her babe's first cry.

"A little boy!" The midwife cried happily, cleaning of the newborn. She then wrapped the infant in a little blue blanket and handed him off to his father's awaiting arms. Once the young boy was safely in James's arms, the midwife turned to her assistant to fill out the birth certificate and the magic registration card.

"Born July 31st at 7 o'clock in the evening to Lord James Daniel Potter; full-blood, and Lily Emma Potter nee Evans; Muggle-born. Weight-" The midwife paused and pointed her wand at the baby, who was now happily feeding, to find the weight, length and the circumference of the babe's head in order to finish filling out the forms. "Weight," she repeated, "3.5 kilograms, one half meters long, and 0.3 meters in circumference."

The midwife turned back to the new family and smiled at the sight before her; Lily was almost asleep, holding her son and leaning against her husband who had seated himself next to his wife and son.

"Lily? James? I need a name."

The two look at each other as if they were silently communicating, then coming to a decision about their son's name.

James answered, "Harry James Potter." The midwife nodded to James and then to her assistant to write the name down. Once the birth certificate had been completed, the midwife sent the document to the Ministry of Magic Department of Births and Magic

Registration via one of the Potter's family owls. The next document was registering Harry's unique magical signature. Once the documents were completed, the midwife and assistance exited the room to allow the new family to continue to bond.

_This moment they will remember for ever._ The midwife thought with a happy smile, which disappeared as she watched a dark eagle owl fly towards the Potter residence.

"Holy SHIT!" Screamed Bellatrix, her brow glistened with sweat. "Get this kid OUT OF ME!" The midwife, who was helping the laboring Bellatrix, tried to calm the screaming woman but to no avail. The woman would not calm down until her soon-to-be-born-child was out of her body.

_6:50 pm. hopefully this kid will make an appearance soon. I'm not sure if I can handle her screaming anymore._ The midwife's unpleasant thoughts filtered through her head as she tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to coach a tired, aggravated Bellatrix through the last few moments of her long labor.

"I can see the head miss. One more push and your beautiful child should be here!"

"I don't give a DAMN if the child has two _fucking_ heads! Just get the little beast out of ME! _NOW_!" With Bellatrix's last explosive out-burst, the child came into the world.

"It's a girl," The midwife said wearily, showing the child to the hooded woman in the corner of the birthing room. The woman exited the room, and the midwife heard hurried, whispered voices in the hall. She knew that she did not have long until the child's father arrived to inspect the child, she must work quickly to fill out the necessary documents to insure that her magic would not be bond by the Ministry of Magic. She set the child carefully into the basinet that had been set up for the child, and then she began to fill out the documents she had pulled in font of her.

_July 31__st__ at 7 o'clock in the evening to Bellatrix Lestrange- Full blood. Weight 3.9 kilograms, 0 .19 meters long, and 0.14 meters in circumference. Name (undecided)._

The midwife sent the birth certificate off quickly, leavening the name blank so that the child could not be traced, then went to the child to record her magic signature. When her magical signature connected with the parchment a blue light emanated from the center of the parchment. Words written in the same shad of blue appeared at the bottom of the parchment.

_It has come to the attention of the Department of Birth and Magic Registration that two children have been born at 7 o'clock on the evening of July 31__st__. These births have invoked the power of Merlin's Gift. By this ancient spell the two children must be united within a week of their births. The other child was born to James Daniel Potter and his wife Lily Emma Potter, he was named Harry James Potter._

The midwife was unable to move from the shock of this development, her master was not going to like this, not at all. The child's father swept into the room, looking for his heir. The midwife pointed at the basinet in an answer to his to his unasked question.

"It is a girl."

"Yes. I am aware. What did you put down as her name?"

"I haven't so that she can not be traced. The name shall be your choice, sir. Sir…there is…um…a…development…of sorts…."

"What do you mean?" The man hissed at the frightened women.

"Well…sir…there was another child born tonight…a male child…"

"So? What does this other child have to do with my daughter?"

"He was born at 7 pm, the same time as your daughter…"

The man was silent for a moment; digesting the information he had just been given. His daughter was now pat of an ancient piece of magic that Merlin himself had created. It was nearly impossible for such a piece of magic to be enacted, and yet here they were, directly in the middle of it.

"You mean to tell me that my daughter-my HEIR- is now betrothed to some unworthy boy?" He screamed at the young woman.

"I'm not sure about him being unworthy, sir, but yes she is."

"Who is the boy?"

This was the one question that the midwife did not want to be around to witness his reaction, let along be the one to deliver the news to the now angry father.

"Harry James Potter," the midwife answered softly looking down to avoid the furious eyes of her master.

The room was silent except for the small noises from the bassinet, not even Bellatrix, who had been laying on the bed moaning in pain for the first twenty minuets of her daughters life, was making a sound. Everyone was waiting for the nearly guaranteed out burst of anger from the father.

"Send for the boy. I will not have my heir living away from me," the man turned from the midwife and looked upon his child for the first time. She had his dark black hair, pale complexion but her eyes where the same shade of blue that the Black family was known for. He reached out to run his fingers through her hair, suddenly missing his own which had fallen out as he forced his body through a drastic metamorphous. His daughter resembled his former self more than she will even resemble his newer, harsher appearance.

"My Lord," a man said from behind the new father. "The Potters have been informed and will be ready for pick up in one hour's time."

"Very well Malfoy. Return to your manor, I do not want you seen there."

"Yes my Lord, you are very kind."

Malfoy rose and walked out of the room. While he had been talking, Bellatrix and the midwife had left the room, leaving the new father with his child. He looked down at the girl, letting a small smile play on his lips, the first one his face had warn in many a summer. He had to name the girl before too long, defiantly before the Potters arrived with their son.

"Emily." He said slowly, "Emillie Rennea Riddle. Yes, that will do. My little Dark Princess."

The room had fallen silent, two letters had just arrived. One from the Ministry informing the new family of their son's betrothed. The other had the Malfoy family seal on the parchment and had yet to be read. Sirius, getting fed up with his friends lack of movement to open the letter, snatched the offensive object out of James's hand and ripped it open.

"Let's see what my thrice damned cousin has to say." Sirius was feeling slightly off balance, his godson was betrothed to some newborn; they did not have a name, apparently there was not one provided on the girl's birth certificate. Sirius tore the letter from its enclosure and shook out the folded parchment.

Potters-

By this time you must have learned that your son is betrothed-thankfully my heir was born earlier this year so I will not have my line spoiled by your blood. However, Bellatrix Lestrange is the mother of your son's betrothed. We shall be at your home within the hour to collect you and your son. Have your bags packed. You will be allowed to return to your home if you wish, but your son will be staying with us. We can offer much better protection for the children. Be ready. We are coming.

Lord Lucius Melovant Sinest Malfoy

Everyone stared at Sirius as he finished the letter. Sirius had to reread it just to make sure that he understood what it contained. James jumped up from the bed and re-snatched the letter from his friend. They remained still for several moments in order to process what had just happened. Their little Harry was betrothed to the child of one of the most feared, and well-known Death Eaters.

"Did the letter say who the father was?' Lily asked in a small voice, fearing the answer.

"No, but she is married so it is safe to assume that it is her husband's spawn," James answered.

"Can't be," Sirius cut it. "Bella married young- when I was fifteen- the man is sterile, some potions accident in his third year I think. Once my family found out that there would be no heir by Bella, they were livid. I was able to sneak out of the house more often and stay away for weeks without them noticing my absence. No, whosever child this is, it is not Lestrange's."

No one spoke. They were trying to figure out whose child the girl belonged to. Their musings were interrupted by a loud banging at the front door. Sirius left to answer the door, with a scowl on his face.

"Well Black, should have known you would be here." Sneered a voice from the other side of the now open door. "Aren't you going to let us in, or has spending so many years away from a proper family left you unable to remember manners?"

"Malfoy," Sirius sneered back. "Would you like to close your mouth, or would you like me to do it for you? I found this spell that removes body parts; I might be temped to go a little lower as well."

"Enough of this!" A voice said from behind Malfoy, it was only then that Sirius realized how many people stood on the Potter's front step. Six hooded figures stood in a semi-circle with Malfoy in the center. "We have come to retrieve the Potter boy and his parents, not swap petty insults with this Blood traitor."

"Sniviluss? Is that you?" Sirius asked, laughter filling his voice.

"Enough! Where are the Potters?" Snape asked again.

"Not that it's any of your business, but they are in the back room."

Malfoy pushed past Sirius, leading the other hooded figures to the back of the house. When they arrived, they found James and Lily in much the same position that Sirius had left them in five minuets earlier.

"Potter!" Malfoy barked. "I thought my letter was clear? We expected you to be ready."

James turned to look at Malfoy then cast a quick _Tempus_ charm.

"It is now just after seven-thirty; your letter said an hour."

"It said _within an hour_ I believe," Malfoy said, a superior sneer in place on his face. James just looked blankly at Malfoy before removing his wand from within his robs, which cause the six men in front of him to do the same. James pointed his wand to the ceiling, but the other men did not relax. He did a complex wand movement before placing his wand within his robes. Upstairs, the sounds of items being packed into trunks could be heard, only then did the men relax. Five minutes later four large trunks were next to the front door waiting for the occupants of the house to make their journey. In the back room no one has moved, Harry had fallen asleep in his father's arms, which allowed Lily to clean up and finish getting ready for the trip.

_He's hardly an hour old and already his life has been changed. Some good must come out of this; I just know it ._Lily thought. Twenty minutes later the group was ready to leave. Two of the hooded men had the trunks levitating in front of them, two other men stood next to James and Lily who was holding Harry.

"We will take you to the Manor," Malfoy said. "Avery! Nott! Make sure that you have a firm hold on them, especially you Nott! Get them there in one piece!" The men followed Malfoy's orders and grabbed James's and Lily's upper arm, preparing to Apparat the new family to their Lord's Manor.

"Dumbledore, what do you mean betrothed?" The angry professor asked the aging man sitting in front of her.

"Just what I said, Minerva. Harry Potter has been betrothed, and it would seem to Mrs. Lestrange. The father is unknown." Dumbledore answered.

"But we cannot let the Potters be taken in by Death Eaters! We need them to try to fight You-Know-Whose army! They must go into hiding."

"I agree, but there isn't much to be done, this type of magic cannot be undone. But yes, the Potters must not been taken with the Death Eaters. It is customary that the daughter will come live with her betrothed's family."

Dumbledore rose from behind his desk and lead Minerva McGonagall out of his office and outside of the Hogwarts' wards so they could Apperate to Godrick's Hollow. When they arrived at the small home, they found Sirius sitting in the darkened Parlor with his head in his hands.

"Their gone." Sirius said tonelessly, without raising his head. "About twenty minutes ago. Malfoy, Nott, Avery and a few others. The father is You-Know-Who, I think. Makes sense, Lestrange is sterile, stupid inbreed prick." Sirius was ranting by this point, not paying attention to the two shocked professors standing before him.

"Sirius," Dumbledore said slowly. "James, Lily and Harry are all gone?" He got a nod in response. "Do you know where they were taken?" This time Sirius shook his head. "Do you know if they will be allowed to leave?"

"Maybe. That's what Malfoy said. But never trust a Malfoy."

"Dumbledore, what are we going to do?" Minerva asked in a worried tone.

"I'm not sure." Was the reply she received.

"My Lord, we have the boy and his family." Malfoy said, bowing low before Lord Voledmort.

"Good. Bring them in; the children must be united as soon as possible."

"Right away, My Lord." Malfoy bowed again, and retreated from the room, only to return a few moments later with the Potter family in tow.

"My Lord, the Potters."

Voledmort turned to look at the young family, Lily, though a Mudblood, had always been a beautiful woman, Voldemort had seen her image through Snape's mind. The Lord Potter, on the other hand, had a mop of unruly black hair and dull brown eyes. Both adults looked nervous, Lily clutched her son closer to her body, fearing that someone was suddenly going to rip the infant out of her arms. Death Eaters surrounded the room, blocking all exits from the scared adults in the center of the room. Voldemort made a slight movement toward one of the people standing at the edge of the room. A few tense moments passed as the person exited the room with everyone waiting for his return. When the man did return, he was carrying a small bundle which he carried to his Master then back away and returned to his spot against the wall. Voldemort looked down on the small bundle laying in his lap and a look of near caring pass over his face.

"You see Potters," Voldemort started after a few moments of silence. "I have needed an heir, I am not as young as I once was, and my attempts of becoming immortal-well that is none of your concern. Needless to say, I had a child. This child," he said, now looking at the family in front of him, "is now betrothed to your son. The traditional way to handle such an arrangement is for the girl to move in with the boy's family, but this will not be happening. You and your son will live here until the time when they are to be married."

James spoke up for the first time. "There is no way that we can live here! We are at war!" he thundered.

"Potter! That will be enough! Nothing can be done! As much as I detest saying this, there will have to be a peaceful end to the conflict. Until that time, you must stay here; it is the safest place for you to hide."

Lily still hadn't said a word but clung to her small son. She was pale and shaking, waking Harry from his slumber. His emerald green eyes focused on his mother for a moment then trained on the small bundle in the Dark Lord's lap. He started to squirm and wriggle in his mother's grasp, in hopes of reaching the small bundle. Voldemort looked at Harry and then at the bundle in his lap, which had begun to wriggle as well.

"My daughter awakes. She can feel his presence. Mrs. Potter, bring your son up here."

Lily gave a scared look to her husband, then, slowly, walked toward the front of the room. As soon as Lily was with in five feet of the Dark Lord, both bundles wriggling increased, causing Lily to stop suddenly.

"Put him on the floor." Voldemort instructed, as soon as Harry was on the ground and Lily had stepped away, Voldemort rose with his daughter in his arms, setting her down next to Harry. Both children stilled for a moment before trying to get closer to each other. Lily, who was slightly closer to the two newborns, stepped towards them to push the bundles together until they were touching. The newborns made a few content cooing then fell into a deep sleep.

"Bella!" Voldemort shouted. "Take her and the Potters to the nursery where the children will be staying then show the Potters to their rooms."

"Yes, my Lord." Bella said, bowing, then picked up her daughter and led the way through the maze of hallways to the nursery and the Potter's living quarters.

"Sirius, what are you saying? The Potter boy is betrothed? To whom?" a middle aged witch asked in agitation.

"My cousin is the mother, the father is unknown. The child's name is unknown." Sirius answered wirily, he had been answering questions such a this for over an hour, first to Dumbledore, then to some of his coworkers in the Auror department and now to the agitated form of Minerva McGonagall. This night couldn't be any worst, but fate seem to have an enjoyment of kicking Sirius in the teeth, for Dumbledore just reentered the room holding a scroll of parchment and wearing an pleasant look on his face.

"Riddle." He said. "The child's name is Emillie Riddle."


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, a little bit of info before we recommence this story. I was reading The Chosen a month or two ago and realized that there were HUGE, GAPING holes in my story! Well, I could not have that, so I sat my butt down and edited the whole thing (well not the first chapter other than a few spelling errors). So, now I have deleted chapters 2-7 and will be adding them back with their corrections and the added information that is desperately needed (I mean, I was getting lost and I'm the one who wrote it!)**

**As always, I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter, I'm just a huge fan that does not want my childhood to end (because this year it will, the last movie of Harry Potter comes out in a few days and I turn 21 in a little under 3 months, my childhood is ending and I am doing everything I can to keep that from truly happening). Enjoy and please let me know how you like the changes I've made, I think it's much better but I would like to hear from you what you think. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 2 **'A New Life'

The first few weeks in the Riddle Manor were strenuous on the young family. James was expected to join the ranks of Voldemort but he was not being accepted by the other members. Snape, once being a good friend of Lily's, reveled in the opportunity to become close to her once more, and to do so he took James under his wing and began training him. The first week of James's new training, two weeks after they had arrived and settled in to their new home, was the hardest week of James's life. It was blatantly obvious that the learning curve at Hogwarts was well below that which was expected of Voldemort's followers. Lily spent half of her time taking care of her newborn and the other half healing the wounds that James acquired while in training. Yet, James was no fool, he learned quickly and soon was landing a few blows of his own against his able instructor.

"Oh come on Snape!" James taunted one afternoon. "Is that all you've got? This is too easy?"

"You're getting cocky Potter." Snape sneered, but the his heart wasn't in the sneer. Throughout the training the two men had become close, much closer than what would have been hoped for while they were in school. "I might have to teach you a lesson about manners."

James dodged the curse thrown at him and fired back his own, barley missing Snape's arm. "Where Malfoy? He'll pose a challenge."

The two men continued to throw half-hearted insults at each other along with different spells for nearly two hours. As the time for dinner approached so did their aggression, but both men were still smiling and laughing as they tossed progressively more difficult curses and hexes towards each other. The six o'clock bell rang throughout the Manor, this was the signal that should have stopped James and Severus's duel and sent them to their respective rooms to clean up and head down to dinner, which was always served right at six thirty, but the men paid no heed to the bell. They were enjoying their sparing a little too much to give such cares as to food.

At six fifteen, Lucius Malfoy strode into the training area, watching the two men.

"Are either one of you preparing to come to dinner tonight? Or are you content with waiting until morning?" He drawled, side-stepping to avoid a waylaid spell.

"We're coming, just let me beat Sev real quick."

"Beat me? James you must have been taking some extra draws on the wine this afternoon." Severus countered back. Lucius chuckled while James just out right laughed, hardly paying attention which nearly got him smacked with a nastly little hex from Severus.

"I would hear this along. Tom is expecting you at dinner for a report on his training Severus, and James, he wants you there too." Lucius said before sweeping out of the hall, leaving the two school boy enemies to their friendly battle.

Ten minutes pasted without either man getting the upper hand, but they still took no notice to the time, they were too caught up in their game. At six thirty a house-elf popped into the room.

"Sirs, the master is expecting yous."

"We will be right there." Severus said, not taking his eyes off his opponent.

Ten more minutes passed. They still had not left the training room.

Lucius returned, but this time he had Avery and Nott in tow.

"James! Severus!" He barked, causing the two men to finally halt their battle. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Uh…six…thirty…two?" James guessed.

"You're off Potter. By ten minutes."

"Fuck." Both men swore.

"Yes I believe that about sums it up. Come along. Hopefully the good news will out way your tardiness." Lucius drawled and led James and Severus out of the training hall with Avery and Nott bringing up the rear.

The group entered the ornate dining hall to see Tom at the head of the table, looking less than pleased, three empty seats, two on his left one on his right, with the Lady Malfoy seated next to the single empty seat and Lily seated at the end of the two empty seats. Both women had their respective babies in newborn-friendly cradles, Lily had an extra wide cradle next to her in which laid Harry and Emillie. The rest of the seats were now filled with those of Tom's followers whom had stayed for the evening meal, Avery and Nott had already reclaimed their abandoned seats, now that their job had been completed.

"Severus, James, how nice of you to join us for supper." Tom sneered, his displeasure was clear to everyone in the room, Lily tensed, she was still not completely comfortable in the Riddle Manor and was less so when near the Lord Riddle himself. "So tell me," Tom continued. "How is his training going?"

"He has exceeded every preconceived notion I had about his abilities. The reason for our tardiness this evening was due to the fact that neither one of us were able to get the upper hand in our duel." Severus replied.

"Really? That is great news. Potter, are you prepared to enter my ranks as a full member?"

James knew that this question would come up sooner rather than latter, and he and Lily had spent hours talking through this decision. James had tried on many different occasions to talk to his former friends but Sirius and Remus would simply not listen. As far as they were concerned, James had turned against them, bringing his wife and newborn along with him. Reports had come in from different spies that Sirius and Remus both had been spouting off anti-Potter hatred since the Potters had left that fateful night in July. James had also tried to contact Dumbledore, but the aging Headmaster would not answer his Owls, or his Floos, and had out and out refused to see his former student on many occasions. It had become unsafe for James or Lily to walk in any Wizarding area without some form of guard or protection. Last week had been the breaking point when Lily had been out on a walk with Narcissa along with the babies and the women had been attacked. The children were fine but both women received some nasty burns and cuts before James, Lucius and Severus, whom had been walking a ways behind them to give the women some 'girl time', were able to catch up and run off the attackers. That night Lily told James that she would do everything in her power to save her son and his betrothed and she would be damned if anymore hate reached the children like it had that afternoon. James knew that moment what he had to do, he had to protect his son and his son's betrothed, that was the only thing that matter.

"Yes. I am. I am willing to join in order to protect our children from further harm and hatred." James said, shaking himself out of his musings.

"Very well, we shall have the ceremony after summer. Now, please, take your seats."

Lily and Narcissa smiled as they watch their toddlers play in the nursery that Tom had set up in the children's wing. Draco, being the oldest, was much more steady on his feat than his younger friends, and was showing it off proudly. Emillie got tired of his prancing around and on Draco's next pass by her, she tripped him. She and Harry burst out into laughter as Draco began to cry. Narcissa rushed over to her son's side to make sure that he was not injured but she could not hide the smile that was playing on her lips and the girl's actions.

"Oh, she is going to be a hellcat once she grows up!" Lily laughed, tears coming to her eyes. Narcissa laughed her agreement as she set her son sitting up right after checking him for any scrapes.

"Now Emillie, that's not very nice. Do not trip your cousin." Narcissa scolded the young girl, who just smiled back at her aunt.

"Cissi!" Emillie cried, throwing her hands up. "Up!" Narcissa picked up the girl and started to dance to unheard music around the boys.

She bent Emillie over backwards in her arms saying, "Look at the silly boys, they don't want to dance!" Emillie just giggled all over and kept repeating "silly boys, sillys boys."

Lily laughed at the sight of the giggling girl, getting up when her own son started to call out "up, up". She bent down picking Harry up and settling him into one of her arms and reached out to do the same with Draco. Soon the two women with their three young ones where dancing and giggling around the nursery. All whom passed in the hall could hear the children's laughter and shouts of glee. Four men in particular hear this and entered the room.

James, followed by Severus, Lucius and Tom all entered the room to watch the happy scene in front of them. Emillie caught sight of her father as Narcissa danced her around.

"Daddy!" She cried happily, reaching out towards the man. This stopped both women from dancing and to look at the door. Similar cries of 'daddy' echoed from the boy's mouths, also reaching for their fathers. Lily and Narcissa stepped forward and delivered each child to their respective fathers.

"How are you doing Princess?" Tom cooed at his smiling daughter.

"We dance, daddy." Emillie replied, not sounding like the two and half years old that she really was. All three children sounded much older than their actual ages, thanks, in part, by Tom's insistence that the children were taught to talked like adults, and not as 'brainless apes' like the rest of the Wizarding community according to Tom.

"What were you dancing to?"

"A song in Auntie Cissy's head."

"Did you have fun?"

"Yes, daddy."

"Well, I'm glad darling. Come on, we shall get some lunch now?"

"Yes please daddy."

"Alright. What shall we have?"

"Cookies!" All three children cried.

"Well that sounds like desert not lunch." James laughed bouncing a laughing Harry in his arms. The group walked, still laughing out of the nursery and down to a private dining area where they would take their lunch.

Three weeks. It felt like a life time ago for the inhabitants of Riddle Manor. Lily had passed away two days earlier. James had locked himself along with Harry in his room until the funeral, even then it was unsure how often the grieving family would emerge. James sat on the edge of his bed, Harry sleeping beside him, fingering his wife's wedding band in his good hand. His left arm had been cursed away from the elbow down and James had refused so far to let Tom create him a magical hand to replace the one he had lost.

_Ten years this fall. _James thought to himself. He could not grasp the fact that his wife was dead. _How did this happen? How did our life come to this?_

There was a knock at the Potter's chamber drawing James out of his dark musings.

"Who is it?" James asked, his voice hoarse with unused.

"It's me." Severus's voice answered through the door.

"Come in." James said dully.

Severus opened the door, stepped in and shut it once more. He took in the sight of his friend crouched over in his grief.

"James, I brought something to help you sleep."

"I don't want it."

"James, you must sleep. You've hardly slept since the attack. None of us have. Please take it, Tom and Lucius already have."

"Tom took it? Why?"

"You know as well as anyone how hurt Emillie was by Dumbledore's spell. Tom's been worried sick because she is still not responding to any treatment. And Lucius, well Narcissa nor Draco were seriously hurt in the raid but he's been worrying himself sick over everyone's wellness. Please just take the _potion_."

James looked even more defeated, but he held out his hand. Severus handed James the bottle then moved to the other side of the bed to pick up the still sleeping five year old.

"I've placed Emillie and Draco in Emillie's room. I believe that the children will be more comfortable there." Severus said, settling the boy further into his arms. James nodded, downing the potion.

Severus carried Harry and placed him next to Emillie and Draco on the large bed that had replaced Emillie's crib several years before. As Severus watched the children sleeping he could not help but think back to that fateful day three weeks earlier.

_The early morning in southern France was bright, clear, and warm. Emillie, Draco, and Harry had risen before dawn and seen to it that every adult in the Malfoy French Manor had been awaken and ready to head down to the beach as promised the night before. House-elves had been preparing a large picnic lunch for the large group to eat while at the beach. The children had been looking forward to their trip to the warm French beach for months, ever since the decision had been made to spend the wet English spring and part of the summer in the Malfoy's summer home. They were running around, trying to watch everything that was going on all at once. Lily had been laughing, well they all had been, the children's excitement was contagious. _

_ It was well into the evening when the group returned home. The children were worn out and sleeping in the arms of one of their parents. Emillie had been handed over to Lily while James had Harry, Tom carried some of their other things as house-elves rushed around the tired group. Several popping noises caught Severus's attention, he turned to look over his shoulder. He was met with a dozen or so wands pointed in the direction of the group, more importantly, the children and the parents holding them. Severus had given the call to fight but they were already under fire. Lucius stayed by Narcissa and Lily, who now had Harry in her arms as well as Emillie, while James rushed to aid Severus and Tom. They were greatly outnumbered, this being a family trip, none of the other followers had joined them in their trip to France. For nearly ten minutes the fighting wore on, James and Severus had been able to take out a few of their attackers leaving them on more even footing, but Lucius had been drawn away from his wife and Lily. Narcissa, only having one child in her arms, was able to defend Lily to some extent, but not entirely. _

_ As the fight continued a new face emerged, Dumbledore, and he had eyes only for the small girl whom Lily had a death grip on, trying to protect her. Time seemed to stop as the men realized exactly where the old headmaster was headed, straight towards the unarmed mother. James had given a shout which sent everyone back into motion, everyone trying to either get to Lily and the children or trying to keep the others from reaching her. Dumbledore gave Lily the chance to stand down and hand over the two children in her arms, but in true Lily form, she told him to go to hell. Dumbledore did not speak again but started firing nonverbal spells at her. Tom, at some point, had set a barrier around Lily, giving her some protection, but that too started to fail. James had almost reached his wife when the tell-tell violet streak of light was sent Lily's way. James had stopped short when he realized what had happened. The barrier around Lily shattered, sending sparks flying in all directions, Lily saw the spell headed towards Emillie at the last second and moved the small child so that Emillie's body was shielded by her own. The spell enveloped Lily but did not stop, it was searching for Emillie. Everyone saw Lily fall to her knees, everyone heard the ear-splitting cry of a young child, and everyone knew that Dumbledore was as good as dead for harming Tom's daughter. _

_ Tom started firing spells like mad towards Dumbledore, all of them were easily reflected. One of these stray spells reflected from Dumbledore, literally bounced off of Lily's still glowing form and hit Harry, causing him to cry out. At that point Dumbledore knew that the only way to survive the night was the leave the battle at once, which he did, followed by his assassins. _

Those that had been injured in the fight were healed and then questioned which required a few more healings, and Tom was far from finished with them. Lily had fought hard for her life, but the combination of Dumbledore's magic binding spell and Tom's rage induced stunner finally left her too weak to continue.

The children had no idea what had happened, even though it had been explained to them several times, but death is not something that a five year old can normally process. Severus smiled as he saw Emillie turn towards Harry and Harry do the same. They never touched but it was clear that the bond they shared was calling out towards its other half for comfort in a difficult and confusing time.

Tom was is one of the worst moods since the attack. All of the Malfoy Manors had gone under major security upgrades; all of the wards had been reinforced and added too. Tom was insisting on training camps for all of his followers. He wanted each man and woman to become warriors, even his daughter. Next week would begin Emillie's new training regime, Harry and Draco would join her by permission of the reluctant adults. James and the Malfoys wanted the children to enjoy their childhood, not be sucked into the war at such an early age, but Tom had been animate. He even went as far to throw Lily's impending death at James in order to get him to agree. After Lily's passing, Tom was sent into a working frenzy, wanting to get everyone ready for any attack that Dumbledore might send. No one close to him was allowed to leave the Manor grounds unless protected following the long list of guidelines Tom had created. He vowed never to let what happened to Lily to happen to anyone else.

A small black haired boy ran around the corner, shrieking in delight. The raven haired girl, whom followed him, was also laughing with mirth. The person causing such a ruckus of merriment was a young white haired boy. Each child was close to the same age of seven years old. And each should have been paying attention to where their current path was leading them. The hall that the black haired boy had lead his two companions lead to the private chambers of the young girl's father, whom had forbade the children from entering under any condition. The girl, her laughter beginning to quiet down, looked for the first time at her surroundings. She knew these walls, these paintings, and the door which the boy in front of her was on a path to intercept with; this was her father's wing of the manor.

"Harry!" she called frantically. "Stop! We shouldn't be here!"

"Em, you worry too much," Harry replied, still laughing.

"Harry, listen to me! This is father's wing! We must leave _now_!"

"Merlin," the pale haired boy said in fear. "Harry, we really must go. If my farther catches us here…"

"His punishment will be nothing compared to mine," said a cold voice behind the frightened boy. The three children turned to look into the angry face Emillie's father. He was flanked by a furious Lucius Malfoy and his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. The three adults were already in a foul mood; Albus Dumbledore refused to see reason yet again. For the past six years Voldemort had tried, without any success, to end the war peacefully, but no, the old meddling fool would hear nothing of it. Then, two years ago while visiting Lady Malfoy in her summer home in France, tragedy struck. The Order of the Phoenix along with several dozen Aurors showed up at the home and a huge battle ensued. The Potters had been gravely injured, Lily dieing a few days later from the injures she received while trying to protect Draco, Emillie, and Harry from harm. James lost part of his left arm but Voldemort was able to give him a magically created silver arm in replacement. Many Death Eaters, Order Members and Aurors died that night, and the only thing that was accomplished was further winding the gap between the two groups. This morning was just the icing on the cake; Dumbledore asked, no- demanded, that Harry and his father be turned over to the Order, Emillie have her magic bound, and Voldemort hand himself into the Ministry and given the Kiss. These thoughts raced through Voldemort's mind as he looked down at the three scared children. His eye searched the faces of his daughter and her betrothed until he found what he was looking for; each child had a scar from the battle two years ago, their only token of the tragedy. Harry's scar was in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead; one of Voldemort's stray curses caused that, but Lily had been able to shield Harry from most of the effects of the curse. His daughter's scar was much different, it started at the corner of her right eye and zigzagged down her face, neck and collar bone where it ended in the shape of an upside-down trident over her heart. Voldemort could only see part of the scar but knew it like the back of his hand. Dumbledore had given her that scar when he had tried to bind Emillie's magic during the fight, but thankfully Lily had been paying attention to the old man and blocked most of the effects, much like she had for Harry, yet Emillie still wore that scar which had finally begun to fad into a slim line down her face. Voldemort was brought out of his musings by a small chuckle behind him. He turned to see Lucius trying, and failing, to hide an amused smile. Voldemort opened to ask the man what exactly was so damned funny but never got that far, Lucius's smile widened and he pointed towards the children. Emillie was standing in front of her father with her puppy dog eyes firmly in place and a small pout on her lips; she was standing with her arms behind her back and twisting her left foot into the floor nervously. When she saw her father looking at her, she quickly lowered her eyes then raised them after a moment to look through her eyelashes back up at her father. Everyone knew that Voldemort was a sucker for this pitiful look. It only took a second before Voldemort crumpled to his daughter's will.

"Oh come here." Voldemort said opening his arms so that his daughter could run into the awaiting hug. "Now, what are you three doing down this hall?" He asked once Emillie had been scooped up and her legs wrapped about his torso.

"Well father," Emillie began, not at all sounding like the seven year old that she was. "We were playing hid and go seek, but then that turned into Tag and Draco was It!" she finished happily.

"And why were you playing two Muggle games?" He inquired of his daughter.

"Aunt Lil's birthday, father."

_Merlin_. Voldemort cured inside to himself. _I completely forgot, I must go inform the House Elves to prepare a feast. Harry and James will never forgive me if I didn't, which means that Em would hate me. Merlin! _

"Of course my dear. But why were you in this wing, you know that you are not to be here."

"I know father but we just were not paying attention. I'm sorry," she said bowing her head in shame.

"Accepted. Now, I want you three to go back to Emillie's wing and play there until the feast tonight. Do not leave unless you are called for. Am I understood?"

"Yes sir." Came the reply from three very grateful children. Voldemort set his daughter down and motioned them to leave.

"Lucius," Voldemort said once the children had left. "I want you to put up extra wards on this wing, the fool who did them last time didn't do the correctly. Who was it?"

"My husband," Bella said speaking for the first time.

"Send him to me."

Bella bowed and left with Lucius, their master's bad mood had returned now that his daughter was not around.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **'Changes in the Tide'

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN_ HOGWARTS LETTERS_?" Voldemort thundered. The small man in front of him quivered in fear.

"Y-y-yes m'lord. Th-three of them. O-one for Dr-Dr-Draco Malfoy, and one f-f-for H-H-Harry P-P-Potter, a-a-and o-o-one f-f-for E-E-Emillie R-R-Riddle." The man's stutter had become worst as his delivered his news. The man was telling the truth, three Hogwarts letters had arrived that morning for the three eleven year olds who were living in the manor, though most of the inhabitants only knew of two, Emillie's existence had been kept very quiet for fear of an attack on the Manor to get the child, and Voldemort was furious, how on earth did the meddling fool learn of his daughter? Her name was a secret to all but a very select few. Thankfully the man had delivered the news when there were no other Death Eaters present; Voldemort killed the man and turned his body into ash. He then summoned a house-elf to bring him James Potter and Lucius Malfoy. Twenty minutes later both men were standing in front of Voldemort.

"We seem to have a small problem, gentlemen. The Headmaster has enrolled the children into school."

"Well, Harry is going. I don't want him to miss out on Hogwarts, some of my best childhood memories are from that school."

"If you wish it my lord, Draco will also attend. It would be helpful to know what was happening within the school."

September 1

"But father why can't I go with Harry and Draco?" Emillie whined to her father, Harry and Draco were just about to leave with their fathers to catch the Hogwarts Express.

"As I have told you for the past three weeks Emillie, Dumbledore will try to harm you at the school, as it is I have no idea how he discovered your name. In all of our correspondents I have never spoken it to the old man. No, you will be safer here. Your Aunt Bella will train you, as I myself, Snape and Uncle Luc." Lucius grimaced at the name that Emillie had given him many years ago, and even though she can now pronounce his name correctly, she refuses to do so.

"Fine," she said with a pout, but it quickly disappeared as she ran to Harry and Draco to say good bye and to extract promises that they will write every week to tell her about their classes and the people there. Twenty minutes before eleven o'clock, James and Lucius lead their boys to the edge of the wards and disapperated to the station.

"Come. Your training begins, my Dark Princess."

Three weeks after the boys left brought the boy's weekly letters to Emillie.

_Dear Emillie,_

_ Be glad that your father did not wish you to attend Hogwarts, the teachers hear are useless! Well, not Uncle Sev (we actually have to call him _'Professor' _or _'sir'_, how weird is that?) he's the only good teacher here really. Our Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA for short, I really don't have to write that each time) professor is a joke! Everyone seems to think that he's under the control of your father! Which is just crazy because the man is useless, he seems to think that monsters are going to be jumping around corners to eat us or something._

_ Would you ask your father if his library has any good defense books in it? I really want to study this subject but even the library here is useless. My other classes are going good, and guess what? I've been made the Slytherin Seeker. Youngest Seeker in a century! I can't wait! Dad is sending me my broom, which has Draco all mad because he won't be able to fly around the grounds with me, but all three of us can do that when we get home._

_ Have a great week Em, I really miss you. _

_ Yours,_

_ Harry _

December 21

Yule was approaching and the Manor was taking a drastic redecoration. Emillie had insisted on having the house-elves decorate for Christmas and to celebrate the boys return home. The eleven year old girl had change a lot in the nearly four months that the boys had been at school. She was now toned with rock hard muscles, had a slight tan and had been learning several types of physical defense styles. The training that she, Harry, and Draco had received prior to this was just a small taste of her training now. Her magic had also grown; she had been studying seven days a week with her tutors and now was several months ahead of the boys in lessons. Another new addition was the black mask that she wore when there was a chance of meeting a Death Eater that did not know her identity. This was a precaution that her father had insisted on after the arrival of her Hogwarts letter at the End of July. There were several Death Eaters who knew her name who should not have known it, they were taken care of and the Mask had been made.

"Emillie!" the stern voice of Bellatrix tore Emillie from her daydreaming and back into the classroom. "Pay attention, the boys will not arrive for several more hours and Snape will be by before then to check on your potion."

Emillie looked from her aunt and then down at her caldron. Her Uncle Sev had given her a very tough final exam for the semester. She was to figure out which potion was before and correct the mistakes that were made to it. Well she had already figured out the potion, it was a simple Swelling Solution but the potion was very wrong, it caused the swelling to continue until whatever had been affected by the potion burst, very dangerous. She had already gathered all the ingredients need to correct the potion but had to now find the correct order in which to add them. Emillie looked at the notes she had made about the properties of the potion and decided how to proceed. She would add the corrective ingredients in the order that she thought the original ingredients had been added.

Twenty minutes later she was finish with the potion, and Bella had handed her a one hundred question test over the potion she had just corrected. The first few questions were simple; questions like "Why did added Powdered Dragon's Claws have a negative affect on the potion, and which ingredient was most ill affected by adding the Powdered Dragon's Claw?" and "If the caldron had been left on the fire for five minutes more, what would have happened to the potion and which ingredients are to blame?" After that the questions became much harder, asking to work out the precise time that the Dried Heartthron Fruit had been added and how much was added, and then asking to list the misused ingredients in order of when they were added to the potion and how much of each was used.

By the time Emily had finished the test, had Severus look over both the potion and the test and had him grill her on several obscure concepts related to the potion and its correction, Emillie only had forty-five minutes to get a shower, get dressed and be in the front hall to meet the boys with her father. After making sure that her mask was firmly in place, she ran from the room to her wing on the other side of the Manor. The house-elves had already drawn a nice hot bath for her and had her lilac coluored dress robes with matching flats on her bed waiting for her. Her bathroom, which she now hurried into at a great speed, was all white marble with gold trimming and silver finishing. Her bathtub could easily fit four people, and when she and the boys were babies, Narcissa and Lily had washed them in this tub together.

Emillie quickly washed and hopped out of the tub, grabbing a large white towel and hurrying into her bedroom to get dressed. Her room was painted in a light purple colour, much to the distain of her father who wanted it painted green, with light wood trimmings. In the center of the bed was a large maple canopy bed with purple and sea-foam green linens. To the right of the bed was a large door which lead into a large closet and on the other side of the bed, next to the door which lead to the bathroom, was another door leading to a large and well furnished play room. Emillie ran to her bed, nearly tripping on the edge of the rug that covered the wood floors. She pulled on her dress robes and shoes then sat down at the vanity in the room, allowing her personal house-elf to style her hair. Thirty-five minutes after she entered her bedchambers, she was racing out of them again, mask firmly in place. She made it to the front hall just as Harry, Draco, James and Lucius had Apperated at the edge of the wards.

"Cutting it rather close, are you not?" The Dark Lord asked his daughter as she materialized next to him.

"I am sorry Father; Uncle Sev's Potion final took much longer than I had anticipated."

"How did you perform?"

"I made high marks on the practical portion of the exam, and missed three question on the written," she reported.

"Why did you miss those questions?"

"I mixed up the affects of Powered Dragon's Horn, and Crushed Dragon's Horn; wrote one of the steps of the Antidote to the Swelling Solution in the wrong place; and misspelled _Archmentious Powder._"

"What does _Archmentious Powder _do?"

"It is the key ingredient to make the Antidote, causing the reversal of the collection of fluid within an object that has been subjected to the Swelling Solution, and is highly toxic when added to water, or eaten in its plant form," Emillie recited as if she had just absorbed the potion textbook.

"Very good. How is your grade in the class over all?"

"Uncle Sev said that I could beet any of his sixth year students with that simple potion. Then again he thinks that are all 'a bunch of dunderheads', as he calls them."

Voldemort sent a small smile to his daughter, and place a hand on her shoulder. There was a loud rapping at the door and a house-elf ran up to open it. Standing there was a beaming Harry Potter and a smirking Draco Malfoy, behind them stood two obviously proud fathers holding trunks and birdcages. The three friends ran towards each other and collided into a groups huge; Emillie's squeals of happiness echoing in the hall. The three fathers met behind the giggling children to discuss what they had noticed about the two young boys.

"Slytherin has done both very well. Harry seems to have taken a liking to Defense, Transfiguration, Charms and Quidditch. Surely Emillie told you that Harry was placed on the Slytherin team the first month of school?" James said, clearly very proud of his son. "Youngest Seeker in a century!"

"Draco also has done very well. His strengths are in Potions, Transfiguration and Charms. I do believe that he will tryout for the team next year but as a Chaser." Lucius said, bragging on his son, then turned to James with a friendly sneer. "Maybe Draco could help Harry raise his dismal Potions grade."

"Only if Draco will let Harry help him in Defense. Honestly, I have no idea why your son can't seem to pick up the subject. He can do Transfiguration, can he not?"

"That will do," Voldemort said, effectively ending the friendly quarrel. "I am pleased that the boys are doing so well at school. But what about the Headmaster?"

"Sir, I believe that it would be best to have that conversation away from prying ears," Lucius answered, gesturing towards the children behind him.

"Emillie, where are your manners? Show the boys to their rooms, and then meet us in the dinning room in fifteen minutes."

"But Father they know where their rooms are," Emillie complained, but with a stern look from her father she lead the boys to her wing were they had been living together for the past several years. Harry's room was two doors down from Emillie's, separated by the shared parlor which had been use as a play room. His room was pained light blue with warm English Oak floors, dresser and night stands. His bed, which was made from the same wood, was a king size with deep sea blue linens. His bathroom was located next to his closet on the opposite side of the room from where the parlor was, and was designed in light marble counters, floors and tub. His fixtures, both in his room and bathroom, were made out of polished brass and copper. Draco's room was on the other side of the hall from Harry's and Emillie's room. His room had been painted Forest Green, with dark Cherry Wood floors and furniture. His linens were sea-foam green, which gave the room a pleasant contrast. His bathroom, in complete contrast to his two friends, was done in black and green marble with iron fixtures. Once the boys had settled, the three children collected their brooms and winter clothing to go flying across the manor's grounds before the snow storm hit later that night.

Several days past with the sounds of children laughing through the Manor; Emillie, Harry and Draco had be confined to the inside of the Manor due to the on set of a sever blizzard. James and Lucius, tiring of nearly being knocked down by the children flying though the corridors on their brooms, had cleared out one of the old ballrooms near Emillie's wing where the children could happily fly around without hurting anyone. Emillie, her father not allowing her to stop her training over the holidays, woke up at five each morning to perform her normal morning training. She would run about a track that her father had built for her in the basement of the Manor six times, which equaled about a five mile run. Then she would go into the weight room that was connected to the track and pool room, and workout in there for an hour and a half. At seven am, Emillie would change into a swimsuit and take a 400 meter cool down swim, which took her a half an hour. After that she would eat a breakfast of fresh fruit, oatmeal and eggs. Then it was up to her room to shower, get dressed and wake the boys up in the most annoying way possible.

This morning, being Christmas morning, Emillie ran into Harry's room, jumped up onto the bed and proceed to jump around the bed with conjured birds thrilling shrilly around her. Once Harry had begun to wake up, she ran out of the room, leaving a few birds in Harry's room, and down the hall where she burst into Draco's room and gave him the same treatment as his friend. Every moment the boys stayed in bed the birds thrilled louder and more shrilly, forcing the boys to get up and run to the safety of their bathrooms.

"COME ON BOYS!" Emillie yelled at the top of her voice. "IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Once she heard the sounds of showers being turned on, she ran from the hall, across the Manor and gave the same treatment to James, Severus, and the Malfoy adults. With her friend's parents officially awake, she made her way to her father's rooms. Every year was the same; she would sneak past the guards, sat 'Hello' to Najini, and open her father's door a crack to peak in. He would always be lying on his side with his back facing the door, pretending to be asleep. Emillie knew that he would get up the same time she did to do work or watch her train, but on her Birthday and Christmas, he always came back to bed and allowed her to wake him up. This morning was no different; Emillie smiled as she saw her father pretending to sleep, then opened the door wider and ran in with several more birds following her.

"Happy Christmas Father!" Emillie said as she jumped onto his bed. Voldemort made a show of pretending to wake up, making the smile on Emillie's face grow.

"It can't be Christmas," he answered her with a tiny smile playing on his lips. "I told them to cancel it."

"Well, _I_ told them not to listen to you!" Emillie said with a shriek of glee.

"If that is the case, why are we still up here? Don't you have presents to open?"

"Yes I do. But," Emillie's voice turned to become very serious. "Aunt Cissi will not let us open them until we have breakfast. So get up so we can eat and the open PRESENTS!" With that excited yell, Emillie jumped from the bed and ran from the room to the dinning hall where everyone else had gathered.

"Is your father coming Em?" Harry asked.

"Her father is right behind her, and how many times do I have to tell you not to call her that ridicules nickname."

Harry just smirked back at the older man, before turning his attention back to Emillie.

"So now that everyone is up, thanks to you, and we are all down here, what was the big rush?"

"It's Christmas, silly," Emillie said, taking her seat next to Harry and her father sat down at the head of the table. "The sooner we eat, the sooner we can open presents!"

"Always knew you were more spoiled than me," Draco drawled from across the table, impersonating his father perfectly. James, who was sitting next to Draco, swat him lovingly on the back of the head for his check.

"She's not spoiled and you know," James said with a smile.

"Well, she puts on a good show of it," Draco replied in a tone that implied that the subject was now closed.

"Enough talk! We shall see who is more spoiled once we finish eating."

The group finished their meal in silence and was herded into lounge by an excited Emillie. Everyone sat around the huge Yule Tree that the house-elves had erected and decorated in the center of the room. Presents expanded from the bottom of the tree, ending at the foot of the chair that Lucius was sitting, some seven feet from the base of the tree. A house-elf appeared near the tree, and with a signal from Voldemort, it reached for the first present and took it to Harry. Harry accepted the package and looked who it was from.

"It's from Draco," Harry said, then opened the gift. Inside the box was a large book and three polished stones, which were about as big as Harry's fist.

"They are to practice Transfiguration with. The book is better than the joke of a book they assigned us for school, and I thought it would be a fun thing to do over the summer," Draco explained.

"Thank you, Draco," Harry said with a smile.

A house-elf took the wrapping paper away while the first house-elf brought forth the second gift and set it before Emillie. The rest of the morning went much in this same fashion and by the time mid-day rolled around the three children and five adults had piles of gifts stacked near them. Emillie had got a similar gift from Draco, only the book was about Charms, Harry had gotten her a wand polishing kit and a book on dangerous magical beasts; James gave her and the boys books on flying, broom care, and a broom servicing kit, this gift was unexplained until an hour later when a house-elf brought in three broom shaped parcels from the eldest Malfoys. Her father had given her and Harry matching necklaces that would warn each other and Voldemort, if either were in danger; he had given a similar one to Draco. James and Lucius had given, on top of their first gifts, similar items to the three children. James's gift was a ring with the three family crests on them; the surname crest was in the center of the ring with the other two on the sides. The rings would deflect minor hexes, curses and jinxes, along with informing the wearer where the other two were. The Malfoys' gift was a bracelet that would heal minor injuries to the wearer. Harry's had an emerald in the center, Draco a moonstone, and Emillie a sapphire. Severus had gifted the children with arm and leg wand holsters along with a set of books in advanced potions making. Harry, in addition to the gifts from the adults and Draco, received a poison green snake from Emillie. She had also given Draco a small kitten that would grow into a type of magical panther that would only grow to be the size of an over grown house cat.

The rest of the holiday went smoothly, if not too fast for the three young friends, but as January neared a recently distant Bella began to pester Emillie about starting her training again. Emillie had been able to hold off Bella's advances for a few days but once the boys where heading off to the train Bella became more persistent. New Year's Day found Emillie caged within her classroom with Bella quizzing Emillie on everything that she had learned the semester before. After the written test, Bella led Emillie to the training room in the basement where the pair spent hours testing on physical strength, dueling and stamina. At 6 pm, Emillie made her way to the dinning hall, ate, then went to her room, showered and was in bed fast asleep by eight.

Mid-February brought disturbing news; Dumbledore had begun to show a special interest in the two young Slytherins. He had set up special lessons with Harry and Draco each Friday night, during these 'lessons' Dumbledore had let it slip that he was interested in finding the location of Voldemort's heir. He believed she was the key to defeating the 'Dark Lord' and 'to bring peace to the Wizarding World'.

_It's all rubbish._ Harry wrote to Emillie in March. _'bring peace'? Who does he think he's kidding? Don't worry, he doesn't know where you are or where your manor is (make sure you tell your father!) I'll write back soon, remember what our fathers told us. _

_ -Harry _

_P.S. Draco says hello and sends his love, apparently he's too lazy write himself._

_ -HP_

As Harry and Draco entered their Second year at Hogwarts, it had become clear that the boys were far behind the achievements of Emillie. With her specialized training she was well on her way to becoming a talented witch and assassin. Voldemort and Bella had worked hard to train Emillie into the fighter she will become. At twelve years old, Emillie was able to strike fear into the hearts of some of her father's most dedicated followers. She was let into meetings between her father and his most loyal followers, so that she could learn strategy and how to tell when someone was lying. Over the summer she had tried to teach the boys some of the things she had been learning, but they were able to distract her by dragging her outside to go flying.

"The boys must be taken out of school! They are so far behind Emillie that they will be no help if the world goes to war!" Lucius said, outraged that James did not see the boys' lack of education as a problem.

"They can learn the same stuff over holidays! If we take the boys out now it will raise too many questions, we can't simply pull the boys out after one year at Hogwarts." James retorted.

"Unfortunately, James is correct. We cannot pull the boys out until their fifth year. Lucius, you should know that." Voldemort said, interrupting the fight that was sure to ensue from the two angry men. "The boys will have to study hard over the summer and Christmas holidays to try to make up some of the gap between them and Emillie. James, I understand that Harry was made Seeker last fall, correct?" James nodded his head in answer to the question. "Very good. Lucius, I want Draco on that team as well, I do not care how you manage it but get that boy on the team! Neither should not be without the protection of the other. Dumbledore will surely try to get information out of the boys." With that the men departed. Lucius went to his room to write a letter to the makers of the Nimbus brooms to place an order for seven new Nimbus 2001 brooms, while James went to make sure that the boys were ready for their trip to Diagon Ally for school supplies.

September 1st rolled around and found Emillie once again very unhappy that the boys were forced to leave again for school. This year, however, she did not complain about their departure; more and more Death Eaters were in the manor now that Dumbledore had pushed a law through the Ministry that gave the Aurors the right to bring in anyone who may or may not be involved with, what the law called, 'anti-peace movements, believes and practices'. It was a bunch of rubbish but just last week the Nott family had be taken in for questioning, the Nott heir may not be allowed to attend school this year and his parents are being held in Azkaban while their manor in Wales was being searched. Many of the Death Eaters-which, come to find out, is the name that Dumbledore had told the rest of Wizarding Britain that followers of Voldemort called themselves- had taken up residence within the Slytherin Manor for protection. Emillie had been forced to wear her mask anytime she stepped foot out of her room to protect her identity. She now stood next to her father in silence as she watched her two childhood friends getting ready to leave for their Second Year at Hogwarts.

This year Harry and Draco had a special assignment from Voldemort. While he was in school, he had had a pet.

_"Now this pet of mine is very dangerous. She will be able to smell your connection with me and will make her way back to me."_ Voldemort had told them. Neither Harry or Draco could speak parsltounge but Voldemort had taught them a few phrases so they would be able to reach his beloved snake. Yet, this proved harder than anyone realized. Once the great snake had realized that her master was indeed alive, she was livid for being forced to live far below Hogwarts for so many decades. By the time the snake finally made her way back to her master, several students and a ghost had been harmed by her anger. Luckily, Harry and Draco were not the targets of her rage, and returned home without any injury. They were, however, in the middle of a legal case that surrounded the olbiviation of one of their professors, a Mr. Lockhart. Lucius was sent into tears of laughter when he read the legal documents, he sent his lawyer on the job and the matter would soon be settled.

The holidays for Harry and Draco became less and less fun. Though they had kept up with the training they had begun several years earlier, they were still far behind Emillie. At nearly thirteen years old she was passing the level of most of the seventh years at Hogwarts, and had surpassed many of Voldemort's less talented followers. Her father had insisted that she was taught to fight with magic and without it. Emillie was now highly skilled in the use of a blade and guns. Her training room had a second room added onto it which looked like a military base's armory than a weapons room for a teen aged girl, and Harry and Draco were expected to learn the same.

Severus had held onto his position at Hogwarts and by doing so was able to give private lesions to Harry and Draco on their nights off, and when he was not needed back at the Manor to check on Emillie's progress with his curriculum. The boys were still far behind Emillie but the lesions with Severus had helped to slowly close that gap. The summers are when most of their training took place. Emillie often joined the boys in their training but it was just review for her. As the boy's third year approached the learning gap between Emillie and the boys had been reduced to about six months. Severus would be working to close that gap a little more while they were at school, and it was expected that by the end of the physical year the boys would only be a month or two behind Emillie.

The last week of August brought disturbing news, Dumbledore had hired a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, not surprising by the outcome of the last two. Sirius Black would take the position, and he had a much better chance of keeping the position than his predecessors. Dumbledore would have the Wizarding World believe that Voldemort had placed a curse on the position which kept a professor from keeping their position any longer than a year, but this was not the case, Dumbledore simply had a knack for hiring incompetent people, but this year was shaping up to be different. Sirius Black had held a special hatred for the Potter family for thirteen years, this anger only grew when he found out about Lily's death, not that he was told exactly whom the curses had come from. The addition of Black to the Hogwarts staff was cause for great concern. Severus was to do everything in his power to protect Harry from his legal godfather, but Severus could not protect Harry everywhere he went, such as into the Defense classroom.

By Christmas, Harry had been sent to the Hospital Wing over twenty times due to mishaps in his Defense class. Draco had been sent at least a dozen times due to similar mishaps which he fell into while trying to protect his friend. James and Lucius had gone to seen the Headmaster several times about this 'accidents', but each time the fathers where waved off with a 'that's what happens in a school full of young wizards and witches'. The last time the men showed up to Dumbledore's office they were met with several members of the Order, fight broke out and many people were injured. Severus was called to tend to James and Lucius for their injuries. The fathers made a full recovery but the decision was made. The boys would be pulled out of Hogwarts in December and they would continue their training at home. Severus was forced to give up his position at Hogwarts, no one was quite sure what the legal reason was, but everyone knew that it was because Severus rushed off to help his friends after the fight instead of staying at Hogwarts and helping the Order members.

The latest attack and the loss of spies within Hogwarts sent Voldemort over the edge. He was enraged at the audacity of the old man! He called for extra training sessions for all within the Manor, and had taken to training Emillie personally. This would not seem as bad, a father wanting to make sure that his child was able to protect themselves seemed perfectly normal had it not been for the state that Emillie was in after their 'training' sessions. Severus was called to heal the young woman nearly every day. It would seem that Voldemort was taking his ire out on his daughter. At first it was just a few cuts and bruises, nothing of great concern, but the small cuts and bruises turned into deep bone bruises, and long lacerations. Emillie fought back with everything she had but she was lucky if she was able to deflect most of his spells.

James, Lucius, and Severus would train her at night to fight her father, arming her with more spells and working on her accuracy while in a fight. The March following the boy's removal from Hogwarts was a turning point in the Riddle family relationship. Emillie had finally succeeded in landing a spell against her father. Blood dripped from the four inch long gash that began at the corner of Voldemort's left eye and ended at his jaw. Father and daughter stared at each other in disbelief. Voldemort's eyes gleamed with barely contained madness.

"Have I not taught you respect?" He hissed at her in parsltoung.

"I would have thought you would be proud father. I am improving." She hissed back.

"INSOLENCE!" He shouted and started firing spells at her anew.

Twenty minutes later Voldemort left, Emillie was lying on the floor, blood dripping from several large cuts, her moans and gasps of pain echoed around the room and down the hall. Harry had felt twinges of pain and ran in search of his betrothed. Severus caught sight of the running young man and quickly followed. They found Emillie in her training room, she had been able to prop herself up against a wall, her dark hair falling about her face, hiding a few of the bruises that where there. Severus and Harry rushed forward to tend to the girl.

"Emillie? Em?" Harry whispered worriedly.

"I'm…I'm alright. Nothing too bad." She whispered back.

"Like hell." Severus said. "You're covered with cuts and bruises and your leg is broken. What happened?"

"I landed a curse." She said simply.

"And he did this?" Harry asked, aghast.

"He said that I didn't show him respect."

Severus and Harry stared at the girl dumbfounded. No respect? That was ridiculous. Everyone had assumed that Voldemort had been actually training Emillie and wanted her to improve, not that he was treating her like his personal punching bag. Severus recovered much faster than Harry did, and went to treating Emillie's various injuries. Harry stayed crouched by Emillie's side, holding her hand and running his fingers through her hair in an attempt to comfort the injured girl.

"I've done all I can here. Harry, take her to her room. I'll meet you up there with some supplies."

"Alright. Come on Em. Lean on me." Harry said, wrapping his arms under Emillie's arms, lifting her up, but the moment she put weight onto her legs she cried out in pain, collapsing into Harry. Harry picked her up bridal style and half-way ran from the room with Severus on his tail.


	4. Chapter 4

**WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SOME VERY GRAFFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF EVENTS. THESE AREAS ARE MARKED SO IF YOU WISH TO SKIP OVER THEM YOU MAY.**** NOTHING WITHIN THESE PARTS ARE ESSENTIAL TO THE PLOT OF THE STORY, THEY JUST HELP ESABLISH CHARACTER BEHAVIOUR WITHIN THIS STORY. ****THIS STORY HAS DUMBLDORE/VOLDEMORT BASHING IN IT, IT IS ALSO A DARKISH HARRY FIC. Sorry for not saying this sooner, I kinda forgot and this is a complete rewrite of the story (my old comp crashed so I'm trying to write this from memory and then gave up and am going in a totally different direction.)**

**As much as I wish that I am the genius that is JRR, I am not and I do not own anything except for the character of Emillie Riddle (and I don't even own the last name of Riddle…that belongs to JRR as well). **

**Chapter 4** 'Life and Times of Crazy Men'

Three Years Later

A lone figure stalked the halls of the castle, heading towards the seventh floor. Six months of planning, preparation and multiple break-ins into the castle had lead to this point. Each break-in, it had been painfully obvious how much the school was lacking in defensive wards and protections. The mission was clear, and after tonight all of the objects will be safely hidden within the manor, this lone artifact was the last in a series, and the most difficult to obtain. The others had taken a maximum of two days to retrieve; the first one that was reclaimed took twenty minutes. But this one, oh no, this one had to been hidden within the heart of Hogwarts. Why this location was chosen, the figure would never understand. To put an object of such great importance within reach of one's enemy seemed to be the pinnacle of foolishness, yet that was not the issue at hand at this very moment. Up ahead of the figure was a flicker in the shadows cast from an overhanging torch, the figure stilled, listening for any movement; not sensing any further movement the figure began to slowly to move forward once again. A few steps into the continued journey, there was a loud bang and the figure crumpled to the ground. Standing, with wand raised and a triumphant twinkle in his eye was the Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. The aged man walked forward to the stunned figure lying before him, he kicked the body over onto its back and bent to uncover the identity of the intruder.

"Well, well, well, who do we have here?" He asked the air about him, he reached out and grabbed the black mask that hid the prone figure's face from him. The young feminine face before him had striking resemblance to a male face he had seen nearly fifty year previously. The girl's high cheekbones, strong brow and straight nose all added up to one name;

"_Riddle,_" he hissed at the unresponsive teen, "We meet at last. I wonder how _daddy _would take the news of his heir's death. That might be something worth seeing."

The aged man aimed another kick at the prone body before levitating it before and walking to the hospital wing. Luckily, it was early in the morning, too early for any teachers or students to be wondering the halls, and the Hospital Wing was luckily vacant. He ended his spell on the woman, dropping her none to gently onto a nearby bed, then went to wake the school nurse from her slumber.

"She is in here, Madam," Dumbledore said, leading the sleepy nurse to the bed. "I caught her sneaking on the fourth floor heading towards the staircase. I'm not sure what she is after, but I want you to heal her, let me know when she awakes."

"Oh course, what happened to her, Headmaster?"

"She put up a bit fight when I attempted to apprehend her," Dumbledore lied easily to the worried nurse. "Take care of her, so that I can interrogate her."

The nurse just nodded her head and watched the Headmaster leave the hospital wing. She turned to the young woman's face, there was a large burse forming on the side of her face along with several abrasions marring her face, neck, and her upper arms. The nurse looked at the young woman's hands searching for physical defensive marks, finding none, the nurse searched for a wand. The wand was strapped to the holster which was wrapped about the young woman's forearm.

"Oh child, I wish you had never come into this castle, the Headmaster has been losing his touch for quite some time now," the nurse said sadly as she went to a cabinet to retrieve bandages, healing spreads and potions, when she returned she continued to talk to the woman she was taking care of. "It started the day of your birth, not that any of that is your fault, but your betrothal did send him for a loop."

In fact, the nurse had no idea how far the betrothal had pushed the aging Headmaster towards the brink between sanity and insanity. He had vowed to bring the Potter heir onto the side of the light and have the young man kill his would-be father-in-law. Emillie's life was nothing to the Headmaster other than a mean to the end. The nurse knew nothing of the Headmaster's fall from grace, nor of his plans to murder many innocent people, but upon seeing the damage inflicted on the woman before her at the hands of the headmaster, she was beginning to open her eyes to his madness. For the better part of an hour the tired nurse worked to heal the young woman's injuries. Once the injures had been healed as much as they would be that night, the nurse pulled privacy curtains around the bed, cast several privacy, locking and security spells around the concealed bed and the Wing's doors, then headed back to bed to sleep for a few more short hours.

_Where am I? _Emillie thought looking about the sterile white walls, bleached sheets, and the stainless steal rods that held the white fabric around the bed she was laying in.

_I have to get out of here…this is so not good!_

Emillie tried to move but found herself magically bound to the bed. She started to panic which increased her heart rate, setting off a spell and alerting the nurse to Emillie's awakened state. The nurse rushed over to check on the panicking girl, forcing a Calming Drought into her before rushing off to alert the Headmaster that she had finally woken up. Thirty minutes later the proud Headmaster strolled into the Hospital Wing and stood next to the bound girl.

"I'm am glad you have recovered and are awake. How are you feeling?"

Emillie kept her mouth shut, glaring up at the Headmaster, hate coursing through her veins like fire.

"Refusing to speak I see, well we will have to loosen your tongue a bit then wont we? Poppy, I shall be taken Miss Riddle with me; you will no longer have to deal with her. Thank you for the work you have done." Dumbledore stunned the young witch, disguised the bed and its occupant as a large trunk before leaving the Hospital Wing with the covered witch in front of him. He headed towards the dungeons passing Snape, who had a very suspicious look on his face at seeing the large trunk and the Headmaster's exuberant expression.

Dumbledore took Emillie into the deepest part of the dungeons in which no one every traveled to, there, Dumbledore chained Emillie to a wall in a small cell.

**!WARNING: GRAPHIC CONENT!**

"Let's see if we cannot loosen your stubborn tongue?" Dumbledore stood back and examined the woman in front of him. The resemblance between her and her father was un-canning, but there was something there within her appearance that was different.

_Her mother. But who could it be? Tom never married and never showed interest in any girls._

"Who is your mother, girl?" Emillie didn't answer, just glared at the Headmaster.

"Hmm, not going to answer? Well maybe this will help. _Cursio!_" He held the curse on Emillie for five minutes; he had to admit she was a strong girl, never made a sound.

"Shall we try again? Who is your mother?"

"Go to hell you bag of shit." Emillie answered, spitting on the floor in front of Dumbledore.

"Well that wasn't very lady like. Hmm, I guess that means five minutes for not answering my question again, another minute for talking back, and one more minute for the spitting. Does that sound correct to you?"

"Fuck you."

"Well I guess that means you would like one more minute. Very well." When Dumbledore started his spell on Emillie she was able to hold her tongue for a few minutes but near the end of her 'punishment' she began to scream in pain.

"Ah yes, I knew that every person had their braking point. Now don't try any of that, there are special wards up just incase you decided to try." Emillie had tried to perform nonverbal wandless magic in attempts to free herself, but to no avail.

_Well if I can't perform it against him, maybe I can perform it on myself._ Emillie thought to herself._ SILENCO!_

"Maybe a different spell will do the trick." Dumbledore said thoughtfully. "_Ragni Affamato_."

Emillie felt many pinpricks of touch, like something was crawling over her body. Then the movement stopped and bites started occur. All over her body, thousands of invisible creatures biting her arms, legs, neck, breasts and more intimate areas.

"A little spell I created some time ago. It means 'hungry spiders', and they are hungry aren't they. I can send them wherever I want them to go." His point was made as one of the spiders scurried over her cloth cover core and bite down hard on her inner thigh. "Will you answer my questions now?" Emillie remained silent. "Very well then I assume you have no further need for those." He waved his wand again and her clothing was removed, leaving her stark naked in front of the old man. The spider that had bite her thigh now traveled up into her young core and ran around inside her, biting occasionally. Emillie still said nothing, but a single tear ran down her face.

**!END OF GRAPHIC CONENT!**

Slytherin Common Room

Harry Potter doubled over in pain, not his own; it let up a small amount leaving him breathless. Then, moments later it felt as if his whole body was on fire, burning him from the inside out.

"Harry? Harry what's wrong?" Draco Malfoy cried rushing over to his friend as Harry feel to his knees, trying not to call out in pain.

"Em," Harry panted. "Where…ah…is she?"

"I-I don't know…Let me get Sev. Pansy! Watch Harry, I'll be right back." Draco ran from the Common Room leaving behind several very shocked people and a worrying Pansy who was on the floor next to Harry, holding him as he tried not to cry out.

Draco ran down the halls in search for the Potions Master, finally finding him walking slowing down a hall which would eventually lead to his office.

"Professor!" Draco called, but the man didn't seem to hear him. "Professor! We need your help! Harry-" he didn't get any further for Professor Snape and turned around quite suddenly and clamed a hand over Draco's mouth in a vice like grip.

"Do-not-say-another-word-out-here" The man breathed harshly. Then, with his hand firmly on Draco's mouth, Snape hurried them to his office at the end of the hall. Once there, Draco was able to disentangle himself from his Godfather as Snape started to cast many security, privacy, detection and protection spells around the room.

"Now," Snape said once he had finished. "What is wrong with Mr. Potter?"

"I-I'm not sure, sir. One moment his completely fine and the next his bent over in pain wondering where Emillie is."

"Oh Merlin. Draco, go get Harry and bring him to my office. NOW!" He thundered when it looked like the young Malfoy may start asking questions which there was no time for. Once Draco was gone, Snape tossed a fine powder into the fire, changing the colour from orange to deep purple before returning to its normal state. Now the only thing to do was to prepare for Harry's arrival and for the arrival of which ever member the Dark Lord sent to Snape's office in answer to the signal.

Severus did not have to wait long, ten minutes after Draco had left he returned with Pansy helping him support a very weaken Harry Potter. The two teens laid their friend onto the transfigured bed that Severus had pointed them to, then stepped back to allow Snape to look over the boy. The fire turned green and out stepped a worried looking James and a furious Lucius. James hurried over to check on his son, Lucius hung back with his son while the two dark haired men worked over the moaning teen.

"What is wrong?" James asked Severus.

"I am not sure. Where is the Dark Princess?"

"Where is…what does that matter?"

"It may matter a great deal. Now where is she?"

"She was on an assignment to get the…items. She isn't expected for a few more days."

"Any idea as to where she was retrieving these items?"

"Um…the cave, the house, Bella got that one, Lucius the other…um shit."

"What?"

"She was coming here. It was her last stop."

"When was the last time anyone heard from her?"

"That would be yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock," Lucius answered. "She told us that she would contact us at 4 o'clock today."

"What time is it now?" James asked.

"It's only 10 in the morning," Draco piped up.

"So, it is unclear if she is in any kind of trouble," James responded.

"James, what do you know of the bond that Harry and Emillie share?" Severus asked, still looking over Harry, who was now quietly moaning on the table.

"Only what everyone else knows."

"It is believed that two betrothed children such as Emillie and Harry can strengthen their bond beyond what the normal ideals of what a bond entails."

"How?"

"Emillie and Harry have grown up together from the day they were born. They have slept in the same house, eaten meals together, learn many skills together. Now, even for the rare coupling such as Harry and Emillie, it is unheard of for the children to grow up in such proximity. Normally the children are raised separately but are brought together to bond several times a month. It is theorized that if the two children are raised such as Harry and Emillie then a special bond will form between the two."

"What kind of bond are you talking about?"

"Again, different people believe different things. But some believe that the couple would be able to feel any pain inflicted onto their partner."

There was silence, Harry let out a few more weak moans of pain before passing out.

"Are you telling me that my son may be feeling some pain that Emillie is feeling?"

"I'm not sure. Without knowing what is and has happened to Emillie there is no sure way to tell."

"DAMNIT SNAPE!" James yelled suddenly. "Is or is not my son and his betrothed being hurt by someone?"

"It is very likely that, that is the case."

"Then there's only one thing to do. We take Harry home before he wakes. Severus, you and Draco need to track down Emillie if she is within the castle, then both of them and Draco should be removed from Hogwarts. It is no longer safe for them."

"Yes," Severus said, thinking. "That does sound like the only option. Luc, borrow the Cloak and search the school the best you can. We must find her!"

"What is to be said to the Dark Lord?" Lucius asked quietly.

"Oh Merlin," James swore. "I'll do it."

It was dark, cold, and damp. Her body hurt, every inch of her seemed to have be run over by ragging Hipogrphys or Gryphins. Even her hair, which was caked in dried blood and grim, seemed to hurt. She knew that she was somewhere deep within the castle, deeper than where the students and staff traveled. The Headmaster had left hours ago, but his influence had not left the small cell, he had cast a spell to keep her awake and to keep the pain in her body from ebbing. He was trying to get her to speak, scream, react to his actions but she had kept silent, mostly because of the Silencing Charm she had cast on herself nonverbally. The only way she would take it off is when she was out of this cell and safely in Harry's embrace. She could hear footfalls coming closer to her, she braced herself the best she could for what would surely be a painful few hours.

A few days had past and there been no sign of Emillie. Harry, now away from Hogwarts, could only feel a few twinges of pain which made his temper all the more worst. Voldemort, on the other hand, had taken the news almost well, until the implications of Emillie's role of a captive had become clear after seeing the pain Harry was in, then his temper was inconsolable. He had cast the Unforgivable Curses on anyone who had dared to disturb him. James was the worst, he was being treated by some of the Healers who had switched sides. Harry, with his father laid up in bed because of his soon to be father-in-law, had turned into a tornado of power, destroying half of the dinning hall and kitchen before Lucius had Stunned him and put him to bed. Hours later, when the spell had finally worn off, Harry had stormed through the Manor demanding blood. Harry stormed into Voldemort's office, a magical wind billowing about him and tossing the two men standing before the maple wood desk easily into the bookshelves on the opposite side of the room.

"I'm going to go get her. Now."

"Mr. Potter, as I told a few days ago, that is not possible without knowing where she is. If we knew that, don't you think I would have gotten my daughter back _before _this moment?"

"She's at Hogwarts! I know she is. I'm going now, with or without your support. I will not allow her to spend one more day at the hands of the Headmaster."

"Take your father, Lucius, and Severus, he came back today to give his report, with you. Make sure they are covered."

Harry left the room, wind still blowing about him, and prepared to leave for the castle by the end of the day.

She could feel the blood trickle down from the cuts on her wrists. The chains were just a little too small and cut into her flesh every time she moved, the fact that the Headmaster had just left after a few more hours of 'interrogation', did not help the cuts. She was growing weaker, she had hardly slept and the only form of nourishment she had been given was nutrition potions. Her magic was growing weaker as well; he hadn't bound her magic yet, just because he wanted to prolong his interrogation of her. As best as Emillie could tell, the Headmaster came to see her twice a day, once in the morning and then again at night, she had seen the Headmaster ten times, which means she had been here about five days. She had to do something to free herself. The first day she had tried to break the chains and the walls around her, but the magic of Hogwarts seemed to be working against her and prevented her escape. Now, five days later, she knew that she did not have much time; she would either be killed or be turned into a squib. Emillie straightened up, placing her feet evenly apart, grasped the chains around her arms, threw her head back and concentrated on her core of magic. She could feel how tired it was, how much damage had been done but as she focused on it more, she could feel the magic start to pulsate in anger and hate. The power grew as the anger raced threw her veins, growing, bubbling, and expanding until it nearly expanded over. She opened her eyes, gassing at the stone ceiling above her and let her magic go, it pulsated about her body once more before snapping away from her.

The whole castle shook; some younger students were knocked off their feet by the force of the blast of power. Dumbledore, who was sitting in his office feeling quite pleased with himself, looked around in fear; there was only one person within the castle walls who could produce a blast of pure magic like that, and she would be taken care that very night.

James looked worriedly at his son, who, at the moment, was arming himself with everything from Muggle hand weapons to potions and other magical offensive gear. Harry threw a pack of throwing stars at James and Lucius, then handed Severus a large case filled with healing potions. Harry had been busy preparing to invade the castle for nearly two hours; it was now approaching seven in the evening. Through the weak bond between himself and Emillie he could tell that she was not being put threw anymore pain but she was gradually weakening and did not have much time left. Finally, when Harry believed that they were as prepared as they were ever going to get, he lead the other men out of the Manor and towards Hogwarts. Before leaving the Manor entirely, he had instructed Nott to be prepared to come to their aid if they were to call for it. The small group Apperated just outside the wards to the school and had to wait a moment for Harry to recover from the sudden onslaught of pain the washed threw his body.

"Alright," Harry panted after a moment. "Let's go bring her home. Draco has gone back to school correct?"

"Yes," Lucius replied. "He will return with us if the situation gets out of hand. If not he and Severus will remain at Hogwarts for as long as possible."

"Good, I don't like leaving him there, but for now it's the best we can hope for."

"Unfortunately it is. Cissy and I have decided to pull him out of Hogwarts at the end of-Harry! Are you alright?"

The three men rushed around the fallen teen. They had all felt the pulse of magic as they crossed the wards but none of them we as affected by it as Harry was. He was currently on all fours panting as if in great pain.

"Luc, Draco will be coming with us tonight." With that he launched to his feet and raced up to the castle doors, the others following in close pursuit.

Dumbledore's day had been a very pleasant one, up until this moment. He had been cosigner on a few new bills that would help his cause and prevent scum like Riddle from gaining more power. He had no interruptions from teachers complaining about the Potter boy for he had fallen ill and his father had taken him home. This seemed to derail young Malfoy from wrong doings, which meant that the rest of the castle was fairly happy due to the lack of pranks performed by the Slytherins, and the loss of the Slytherin Seeker which allowed Gryffindor to take the lead for the Cup this year. Oh yes, his week had been very pleasant, until now. Emillie's magical surge had last nearly ten minutes and was starting to give the Headmaster a nasty headache.

_Well,_ the Headmaster thought to himself. _I believe that it is time to bind her magic. I had no idea she was this powerful._

With that cheerful thought, Dumbledore laid down his paper work and left his office to deal with 'the Riddle problem' as he called her.

_I can't keep this up much longer. Gods above, Harry where are you?_

_Almost there, just a little bit further._ Harry thought to himself, racing up the hill that led to the front doors. The magical surge that he first felt when they crossed the wards was becoming stronger and weaker at the same time. As he drew closer to the castle the presence of the magic became more powerful, and confirmed the fact that Emillie was within the castle, but, the magic itself was becoming weaker. Harry had no idea how long Emillie had let her magic pulsate around the school, but he had been running for nearly ten minutes, so he knew that she wouldn't be able to hold on to much longer.

_Just hold on a little bit longer, Em. Please, just a little bit longer._ Harry thought desperately, as if Emillie could hear his thoughts.

Ron Weasly was hungry, as was normal for seven o'clock in the evening, and was trying to hurry along his girlfriend Hermione Granger, little sister Ginny, and his best friend Dean Tomas so that they could get to the Great Hall before the food disappeared. They were running late because of Hermione and her never ending search for answers, tonight she was researching magical coupling bonds, the reason why she was doing that eluded Ron, as did the reasons for most of his girlfriend's actions.

"Ron?" Hermione asked, stopping suddenly.

"Yes, Hermione, I will go with to the Library after dinner. Now can we please go?"

"No, not that…do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Ginny asked looking around.

"That pulsating. You don't feel that?" She asked again looking at her companions.

"I kinda do, it's like I can feel it within my chest or something," Dean said.

"Does it really matter?" Ron asked, exasperated. "It's Hogwarts, weird things are always happening. Let's go get dinner."

The other three agreed and continued to walk towards the Great Hall. When they were at the top of the marble staircase Hermione stopped once more.

"Are you sure that you guys can't feel that? It's getting stronger and it feels like it's grown or been added to or something." No one answered her. Ginny was clutching her chest like it was painful and had tears in her eyes. Ron was holding his head and shaking it slightly, almost as if there was a persistent ringing in his ears. Dean had fainted. Hermione swooped down to check on her fallen friend, then looked up to go have Ron get Madam Pompfy but Ron wasn't paying attention to her, he was staring out of a nearby window, his face ashen.

"What is it Ron?" Hermione asked.

He didn't have to answer because a moment later the Entrance Hall doors opened with a humongous bang. In strode four hooded and cloaked figures, the leader of the small group threw back his hood to reveal Harry Potter.

"WHERE IS DUMBLEDORE?" He shouted, his voice easily caring through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall, which silence imminently. No one answered; they just stood in shock looking at the furious Slytherin Seeker.

"WHERE IS HE?" he shouted once more at the shell shocked students.

"There is no need to shout my dear boy. I am right here," the man had appeared quite suddenly on the other side of Hermione, Dean, Ron and Ginny, and was now looking down at the angry teen with a delightful little twinkle in his blue eyes.

"You have something that belongs to me, Dumbledore, and I want it back." Harry's voice had lowered an octave, and he sounded extremely dangerous.

"My boy, I have no idea what you are speaking of. If you like, we can go to my office to discus the matter further." Dumbledore offered, trying to get Harry out of the Entrance Hall because the Great Hall, still packed with students from dinner, had begun to empty to investigate the commotion.

"No, Dumbledore!" Harry shouted, his magic whipping out from him, shattering some windows, causing some students to scream and run from the falling glass. "We talk here! WHERE IS MY BETHROTHED?"

"Harry, I have no idea what you are talking about. Now, if you and your-"

"LIKE HELL YOU DON"T!" At this outburst, the huge oak doors to the Great Hall burst into splinters, showering the still scared congregation of students. "I will tear this building down stone by stone unless you give her to me!"

"Harry, I highly doubt that Hogwarts would let you destroy her in order to find your imaginary girl."

"Oh really?" Harry asked smirking, he pointed his hand at the marble staircase causing part of the stairs to crumble into rubble. "She's not under the stairs, Dumbledore. How about behind that wall? Hmm?" He pointed his hand at a wall on his right, shattering into dust. Dumbledore seemed unfazed unlike the rest of the people gathered there.

"Harry, let the students and teachers go back to their rooms."

"Oh no Dumbledore, I can't allow that. If they leave how will they ever learn the truth about you?" Harry mocked in a false innocent voice. "They will stay until the end of the lesson, as will you, my dear Headmaster." The clock that hung in the Entrance Hall was suddenly flying out the window and onto the grass outside.

"Harry, there is really no reason to destroy the castle. Let them go and I will tell you want you want to know." The Headmaster seemed desperate at this point, he was trying to save his school, his students, his faculty, and most importantly him reputation, all of with were traveling very fast down the toilet.

"You don't seem to understand Professor." Harry said, still mocking the man before him. "You are not in a position to bargain. Your options are give me my betrothed, or I destroy the castle and you."

"Harry I have one better for you." Dumbledore had just thought of a brilliant idea.

"And what would that be Dumbledore?"

"A swap."

_A swap? What on earth would he want in exchange for Emillie?_ Harry thought frantically.

"What kind of swap Dumbledore?" Harry asked in a ringing voice, and causing a few more of the few unbroken windows to shatter, spraying the students with more glass.

_Good. He's at least considering it. Now just to get him to agree. _Dumbledore thought, the twinkle sparkling in his eyes. He was not frightened by Harry's clear display of power as he destroyed the Entrance Hall, but he was excited at the prospect of gaining someone on his side with such an impressive amount of raw power. He knew that if he could get Harry on his side he had a better of chance of getting Emillie on his side as well, and if he had the set then dear old Tom would not stand a chance against the Order.

"Well Harry." Dumbledore started to answer. "Trade the girl for something or someone else of equal or greater…_value_ as it were. You see, she is very valuable. All that she needs to become the perfect warrior is simply to be broken, and she is nearly there. So, I would need something, or someone, who would be just as valuable, if not more valuable, as a nearly broken…_mare._"

"Spit it out Dumbledore!" Harry was becoming very angry; his betrothed was _not_ to be compared to a common animal! His spike in anger caused several more stones to shatter and the great oak doors to the Great Hall to crack down the center.

"Very well, my boy. Simply put, _you_ swap sides in return for the girl's freedom."

Harry stood in disbelief at the old man in front of him.

"You want to trade my freedom for hers?" Harry's voice cared every amount of shock that he was feeling.

"Yes, well not your freedom," Dumbledore said, back peddling slightly. "She goes free and you join my side of the war, you will still have your freedom-"

"Hardly! My freedom lies with her not you!"

"If you see it that way, then that will have to be something that you must come to terms with. But my offer still stands. You for her."

Every person in the Hall could feel Harry's magic crackling about him, it seemed to swell and lash out away from him; several more stones in the wall exploded along with two suits of armor.

"Harry, I grow wiry of this. Make your choice!"

Harry looked behind him at the three hooded figures. They gave no sign in agreement or disapproval of the choice that Harry was faced with. He turned back towards Dumbledore, a new plan forming in his mind.

"She leaves, and so does Draco. I will stay, but I must be able to see them along with the three behind me, safely to the wards. Once they are gone, I will return to the castle."

"As long as I can make sure that you will not leave with them."

"I will not leave the wards," Harry promised.

Dumbledore smirked again. "Ah Harry, I wish that your words were enough but alas they are not. _Enlazar!_" A flash blood red light shot from Dumbledore's wand and attached itself to Harry's neck, squeezing it until Harry fell to his knees, gasping for breath.

"What-the-fuck-?" Harry managed to gasp out.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is that too tight?" Dumbledore asked not sounding sorry at all. "There. Is that a bit better?" The red band around Harry's neck loosened slightly, allowing him to breathe properly.

"What the fuck is this thing?" Harry demanded, pulling at the collar.

"A simple spell to keep you within the grounds that is all. I would not keep pulling on that if I were you. The spell tends to want to give off a-well there you have it." Harry had not stopped pulling at the collar and was rewarded for his efforts but an invisible hand wrapping itself around Harry's windpipe, depriving him of more oxygen. Harry fell once more to the ground, gasping for air, after a few moments the collar loosened once again so that Harry could breathe properly again.

"Fine. You know that I will not be able to leave the grounds, now where is she?"

"Oh, that's right. You want the girl back, very well." Dumbledore flicked his wand once more and stood waiting for her arrival. Five minutes later a noise was heard coming from one of the corridors that lead to the dungeons. People started screaming and pushing against one another as something came flying over their heads towards the center of the room. It skidded across the floor and rolled three times before coming to a stop a few feet in front of Harry. Laying on her side was the naked body of a very badly beaten Emillie Riddle. Harry slowly walked to her, as if he was afraid that what he was looking at was a trick of a very bed joke. She had clearly visible broken bones, cuts, bruises, burns and bites all over her body. Her dark hair was clotted with dried blood and dirt; her body seemed to be coated in the blood/dirt mixture. When he got close enough to her, he knelt beside her head and pushed away a few pieces of her blood coated hair. Realizing that the image before he was indeed real, he quickly took off his outer robes to cover her naked form.

"Emillie?" Harry asked quietly, trying to determine how hurt the teen really was. "Em, honey? Can you hear me? Please wake up, look at me." As he was pleading with Emillie to wake up, the three men who had come with Harry to Hogwarts had moved to kneel next to the couple.

"Harry," James's quiet voice came from Harry's left. "She's too injured to treat here. We must get her back."

"I just want to know that she'll be alright."

"No time. Luc, get Draco. We're leaving." Severus said harshly from the other side of James. Lucius raised and walked over to his son, making sure that his identity was still concealed. Lucius lead Draco out of the Hall while Harry picked up Emillie to carry her to the edge of the wards.

"Harry," Dumbledore's voice called out just as the group was about to leave the Hall. "Don't be too long, we have many things to discus."

Harry did not respond, his hold on Emillie became slightly tighter and he continued to walk out of Hogwarts. Once they were down the steps and on to the grass, Harry's step quickened.

"Harry, what the hell have you done?" James asked his son ferociously.

"I did what I had to do to save her. She's so close to death. I am willing to forfeit my life for hers."

Harry was in Dumbledore's office, his good-bye to Emillie, his father and the other three men had been cut short by the collar around his neck and now he was standing in front of Dumbledore's desk glaring and the smiling man. Dumbledore was pushing the limits of Harry's temper; first was the swap that had saved Emillie's life but now Dumbledore was asking Harry to agree to an Unbreakable Vow which included some very high terms.

"Let me see if I understand you. You want me to agree to kill _both_ Voldemort _and_ Emillie? You must be mad. I would not be able to kill her, you know that. She's my betrothed. But then if you intend that Emillie and I shall both be dead by the end of this war you're crazier than I imagined. I will kill Voldemort, honestly I hate the man. He treats Emillie like a worthless tool and I will not have her be hurt anymore by her father's cruelness. Emillie is not to be harmed, by me, by you, on your orders, and not by the Order. Neither is my father, Lucius or Draco. I understand this is war but you, nor your Order will not go after any of them."

"And what of self-defense?"

"Fine, but they will not initiate a fight. Once this mess is over you will allow us to leave in peace. And I am not agreeing to an Unbreakable Vow."

"Your terms are steep, and if you do not agree to a Vow how will I know that you will stick to your word?"

"You still have me collared like a dog and I do not see that changing for quite some time."

"True, but I have one more condition; you must train with instructors of my choosing from now until the start of the war. Before you protest too much let me remind you that your actions will determine the survival of your beloved."

Harry started at the man dumbfounded, this was the only way that he could insure Emillie's safety, he knew that agreeing to such an arrangement could possibly spell sever bodily harm to himself at the hands of his 'instructors'.

"If I do this, you will allow me to protect Emillie and you will not harm her in anyway, shape or form? Including ordering the Order or other missionaries after her? Dumbledore, I mean it, no one is to go after her on your orders or on a passing suggestion of yours. You must to put the thought of harming her into anyone's mind. Understood?"

"Naturally, my boy."

"Then, we are agreed."

James carried Emillie into the manor and was immediately shouting for Healers. The Healers, a few house-elves, Lucius and Severus followed James up the stairs to Emillie's bedroom where James laid her down and stepped back to allow the Healers and Severus room to work on the injured girl.

"Where is he?" James asked Lucius who was also standing back watching the group surrounding Emillie.

"I am not sure. I sent Draco to fetch him. He has been gone only a few minutes but I have a bad feeling about his absence." Lucius answered shooting a wary glance at the door. James's eyes followed suit; in recent years their Lord had taken on a very harsh and slightly crazed domineer. He spent less and less time with his daughter and the fathers of her friends. He had delighted in pointless murders, raids and other chaos. Bellatrix was right next to her part-time lover, egging him on in his fall into madness. It was almost if he was taking on the persona of an evil Dark Lord that Dumbledore had been building in the media for the past fifteen years.

"Fuck!" Severus cussed; bring James and Lucius out of the grim thoughts. The group of Healers had slowly been removing dirt and grim of Emillie's body so that they might have a better look at her wounds. Severus had just noticed the small bite marks that covered her body which became more concentrated around her womanhood. "That man is sick! No, don't come any closer." Severus said when James and Lucius made to come investigate what had been done to the girl. "You don't want to see this. He used an adaptation of an ancient spell that creates thousands of invisible spiders that crawl over the victim's body and bite at random. These spiders happen to like very sensitive parts of a human's anatomy; the neck, underarms, behind the knees, ears, and also the reproductive organs."

James and Lucius froze in horror, how could someone do that to another person let alone a teenage girl. Severus ignored the still shocked faces of his two friends and returned to working to heal the young woman in front of him. Severus started to pour various potions down Emillie's throat, then pointed his wand at Emillie, running a diagnostic scan over her.

"She has several broken bones, mostly ribs but her right arm bones are broken in three different places. She has internal bleeding but most of it has stopped bleeding several hours ago, up to three days ago. Her body has taken a sever beating, both magically and physically, but it was her magic that saved her life. It could heal her some of her more minor injuries and the internal bleeding; just enough to save her life until someone could get her out, or Dumbledore got bored." Severus was mostly talking to himself but he also was doing it for James and Lucius so they knew what was happening. While Severus was talking, Draco had reentered the room alone.

"Where is he?" James asked, not turning his eyes from the scene before him.

"He is not coming. He wants you three to meet with him once you are finished in here." Draco's voice was emotionless and he stared at the floor, not meeting anyone's eyes. James finally turned toward Draco, his face displaying a little shock; James had been guarding his feelings for years and rarely showed any true emotion so for him to belatedly show so much emotion was a testament of how upset he truly was.

"What do you mean? What did he say exactly? Verbatim." James's voice was strained and harsh.

Draco continued to look at the floor. He knew that his friend's father was acting strangely and not coming to his daughter's bedside was indeed something to worry about.

"He said, 'She's been found then?' and I said 'Yes sir, Harry traded his-'. He interrupted me and said, 'Is she alive?', I nodded then he said 'Good. Inform me when she awakes. Also, tell Malfoy, Potter, and Snape that I wish to speak with them when they are finished.' Then I left and came here." Draco finished his small speech and still hadn't lifted his eyes to look at his father or James.

"That's all he said?" Lucius asked, scandalized.

Draco just nodded again; everyone who had been paying attention understood the seriousness of the situation that they were in. Harry had been taken to save Emillie's life, Emillie might not live and her father was swiftly falling into madness. With Harry held captive by the opposite side it meant that the Order had just taken an extremely good fighter out of the hands of their enemies. Emillie, if she ever woke up, was the stronger of the two just because she had been training longer, but that did absolutely no good if she died. Her father use to be a great leader and man, but for the past several years he had been falling into the media trap that Dumbledore had lain. His more crazed and bloodthirsty followers had encouraged his drastic change and had readily agreed to some of his more farfetched ideas. Killings had increased, brutality had taken place over negotiation and the bloodshed was increasing, all on the orders of one crazed man.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5** 'Surviving'

Harry was thrown once more into the opposite wall, his instructors had turned out to be Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, his true godfathers but they had harbored a hatred for the Potter family since the day that they had left for Riddle Manor, and they were now taking that hurt and frustration out on Harry. Harry, to his credit, was holding his own, Lupin had been thrown down several times and Sirius had a bloody nose and black eye. Harry slowly raised himself off the floor, whipping away some blood from the corner of his mouth.

"What's wrong Potter? Can't keep up with the big boys?" It was a stupid comment, but Harry wasn't expecting much from Sirius, but honestly, _not playing with the big boys_?

"Big boys, huh? Lets see about that," Harry said under his breath. He closed his eyes and focused on his ball of power that he had kept locked away until this moment. When he opened his eyes again they had turned nearly black, power seemed to crackle about him, forcing Remus and Sirius to step back a few paces. Then men were picked up and thrown into the opposite wall, much like they had been doing to Harry for the past hour. The magic that was built into Hogwarts tried to stop the magic that was emanating from the angry teen, but to no avail. Harry's anger was unquenchable; everything that had happened in the past few weeks and years to his family was breaking threw at a single moment and was directed to the two nearly unconscious men before him.

Two hours later, Harry left the room he was suppose to be training in with his godfathers alone. Behind him half concealed in shadow lay the moaning bodies of his godfathers.

It had taken Severus nearly three hours to heal many of Emillie's injuries. She was still in critical condition, and was kept in a potion induced coma until her magic had recovered, but she was in a much better position to recover than she had been when she first arrived. Severus finally straightened up after hours of being bent over Emillie's prone body. She was snuggly tucked into her king size canopy bed, and Severus looked emotionally and physically drained. As Severus stepped back from the bed, he gave his wand a quick flick of his wand to close the deep purple velvet curtains.

"She will sleep until the potion wears off, at that time I will see if she needs more or if she can continue to heal on her own."

"You need to get cleaned up. We've been summoned." James said, tonelessly, Severus just nodded and swept out of the room and into the adjoining bathroom. Twenty minutes later, he was slightly more cleaned up and braced for the interrogation that they were sure to be subject to.

The three men entered the old ballroom, which had recently been transferred into a throne room of sorts, walked down to the throne where their long time friend was perched. James, Lucius and Severus stopped a few feet of where the ornate chair was set on a raised platform. Bella was lounging at Voldemort's feet looking smug, and dressed, well hardly dress would be a more accurate description of how she was dressed. She was wearing a lacey see-through bra, a nearly see-through skirt that reached the floor but had two hip-high slits which showed that she was not wearing any undergarments, yet she was wearing thigh-high black four-inch leather boots. In all, she looked like a common street walker and not the ignored mother of her lord's daughter. When the three men simply stood before the platform she shirked and jumped to her feet, exposing lower regions.

"You shall _bow_ and _kiss_ the feet of your Lord!" She shirked.

"Hush you harlot. We have no use of your mindless babble," Severus sneered.

"She is correct Snape," Voldemort spoke softly. "A new order has begun. If you three bothered to show up when the rest were called you would know that."

"Last time we talked you, you treated your followers like equals. Not mindless minions," Lucius said just as softly.

"I will not tolerate disobedience, Lucius!"

"You used to not tolerate idiocy."

"Enough! What of my heir?"

"It is unsure if she will live. She is stable for now but-"

"What do you mean 'unsure if she will live'? Your job was to protect her! And you failed and now she may die! I can not lose my most skilled warrior!" With that simple statement, Voldemort's true feelings about his daughter became clear. He no longer saw her as a person, or as his family; she had been reduced to a tool, a pawn to be used to win a war.

_CRASH!_ The three people sitting at the dinning table about to have breakfast, jumped in surprise then, after shooting a wary eye up at the ceiling, turned back to the food that had just been place before them. For the past few months, everyone in the Manor had been subjected to the wrath of Emillie Riddle. After she had woken up and recovered, she had been informed of the changes in her life and she was far from pleased. Once she was strong enough to walk, about a week after she returned to the Manor, she had stormed into her father's office demanding what would been done to rescue Harry from Hogwarts. The encounter had left her near death, again. Her father's fall into madness had increased and he seemed to delight in nearly killing anyone who dared to question him, but that had not detoured Emillie in the slightest. As soon as she was well once again, she had managed to piss her father off within an hour; Severus had been up late with her, making sure that she lived to the next day. And so began the routine, only as the days and weeks wore on Emillie had been able to fight her father more and more, once placing him under the Cruciatus Curse for over a minute before one of the crazier of Death Eaters had stepped in to stop her. Bella had become Voldemort's right hand and had been feeding his madness, turning him against the daughter he worked to protect for fifteen years. James thought that Bella hand been jealous of her daughter and angry for being ignored by Voldemort. This was her revenge on her daughter, and she was taking the utmost pleaser in seeing Emillie suffer day in and day out, near death most days from her father's rage. Each morning was the same, Emillie would wake up, have her breakfast brought to her rooms, then she would confront her father, and by the sounds coming from the upstairs at the moment, it seemed as if Emillie was putting up one hell of a fight.

"Do you think that it will ever end?" Draco asked the other two men at the table as another crash sounded through the Manor.

"I don't think so. Not unless one gives in, leaves or dies." James answered miserably. He had not been sleeping well out of worry for his son and helping Severus make healing potions for Emillie.

"So the answer to you question son is 'No', they will continue on until some outside force stops them. Mainly, Harry." Lucius sneered, well, nearly sneered. He was just as tired as James from helping Severus and trying to control the Death Eaters, many whom were starting to agree with the mad ravings of their Lord.

"Is Severus still sleeping?" Lucius asked.

"Yeah." James said after swallowing a bite of egg. "I left for bed at around three this morning and he still had at least two more hours worth of work to do. I would have stayed at helped but I had been up for over 48 hours and was nearly useless."

The other two nodded in understanding. Life had become very stressful and that stress was amplified by the lack of sleep everyone was experiencing. They sat in silence, eating their breakfast and enjoying the momentarily bought of quiet. Draco looked up from his plate and looked at the ceiling as if he was expecting something.

"It's quiet," he said which caused the other two men to look up as well. After the last crash, five minutes earlier, the Manor had gone silent, which was a cause for worry. The three men sat, not moving, waiting to here another crash or the familiar 'pop' of a house-elf summoning them to care for a wounded Emillie, but neither came. Long moments past without a form of indication of what was happening between the father and daughter. Just as Lucius was preparing to investigate the unusual silence, the Dinning Hall's great oak doors were thrown open, banging on the walls they were attached to. There standing radiating anger and power was a very pissed off Emillie Riddle. She strode into the Hall and came to a stop in front of the stunned males.

"Draco, training room. Thirty minutes. James, get Severus, I need you two to finish the research. Lucius, find those who are not longer loyal to my father or to Dumbledore." Emillie turned and started to make her way back out of the room when James's voice stopped her.

"Emillie, what's happened?"

"Times have changed. We must prepare for war. My father is no longer able to lead as he should, and I will not allow Harry to be subject to my father's madness." With that she left. The three men just starred at the retreating form of Emillie, simply dumbstruck at the forcefulness behind her words and domineer.

"I would finish your meal Draco and hurry down to the training room. Better not keep her waiting," Lucius said, his eyes never leaving the now closed doors, as if he was expecting Emillie to bust through the doors once again. Draco nodded then looked back at his now cold breakfast, picked up a piece of buttered toast and left the hall in a flurry of robes.

"Well, this morning has taken a strange turn, don't you think?" James asked without much amusement.

"Quiet, do we listen to her?" Lucius asked the question that both men had been thinking.

"What choice do we have? We stay and listen to the ravings of a man man; join a manipulative old man, or follow Emillie, who may actually have a clue how to get us out of this mess."

James didn't say anything, he knew that what his friend was saying was the truth. The war had just acquired a third side and it was only a matter of time until all three side collided and one achieved victory over the others. Was Emillie strong enough for the battles that lay before her? James could only hope; his life and the life of his son depended on the leadership of a nearly seventeen year old girl. The only thing to do was to hold on a pray to any god in the heavens and hell that they would all survive the roller coaster of a ride that they were being dragged on. James put a comforting hand on Lucius's shoulder then walked out of the hall to wake Severus; the two if them had hours if not days of research before them. Yet, as James walked towards Severus's rooms, he reflected on the tasks that each man had been given, and James was quiet glad that he did not have Lucius's job. Lucius would be lucky if he came out of his assignment unscathed; recruitment to a new side in a very ugly war could cost him his life. Many people could not or would not see through the madness that led both Dumbledore and Voldemort in their actions regarding the war. Yes, James was very glad that all he had to do was research the family trees of the Potters and Riddles, and search for the secret of Voldemort's immortality and how to reverse it.

Emillie was pacing in her room, her plans had been going well, she had been able to train Draco into a suitable body guard, though he did need some more training, with the help of Lucius, she had gained quiet a following, a silent following for she was not yet ready to come out into the open. James and Severus had made huge strides in their research; her father was a bit less immortal than he was a few weeks earlier. Yes, all in all things were going well, a few more weeks of research, training and planning she would be able to come out into the open against her father and Dumbledore. But first, she needed a new place to call home. The Riddle Manor was becoming increasingly dangerous, not only for her but also for those who are loyal to her. Yesterday she had walked out of her father's office bleeding and with a broken arm; Severus was less than pleased that she purposely pissed off her father time and time again. James had also gotten his fair share of abuse, but he had gotten off a lot easier than Emillie had ever had. It was high time for a new location, but the question was where. A knock at the door interrupted Emillie's musings.

"Who is it?" Emillie called drawing her wand from it's holder on her left forearm.

"Severus."

"Come in," she answered, not letting go of her wand. Severus entered the room, closing the door behind him and cast a curious glance at the tight grip, which Emillie had on her wand. Emillie looked down at her own hand, released her grip slightly, and shot an apologetic look at Severus.

"Always on guard, I see."

"Have to be in times like these."

"You sound so much older than you," Severus said sadly, brushing some of her dark hair away from her face. Emillie took a shaky breath before launching herself into her godfather's arms, crying softly.

"I'm so scared Sev. I don't know if I can do all this," she sobbed quietly. Severus held on to her more firmly, giving her some of his strength.

"You are strong woman Em. We trust you, we will help you and support you anyway you need it. We will save the Wizarding World and Harry from the evils that have flooded our world." Emillie sobbed harder and clung harder to Severus. Severus held Emillie until her tears ran dry. Emillie pulled away and turned her back to Severus to rid her face of any traces of tears from her face, then turned back towards Severus, her mask of strength firmly back in place.

"What did you come here to tell me Severus?

"The potions are ready."

"All of them?"

"Yes. James and Lucius are handing out packs of them now."

"Good. Severus, we need a new home."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't know that's why I'm asking. It is becoming much too dangerous for us to stay here any longer. Father is very near killing me, and once I am gone it won't take long for him to turn on you and everyone else."

Severus stared at the young girl for a long time; everything she said was true and frightening. Emillie was trained to stand at her father's side when the time of war arose, but here she was plotting move against him and Dumbledore. The notion was frightening, the situation was frightening and the only thing to do was to choose a side and hold on for dear life.

"I will look into it Emillie, but for now you must not provoke your father anymore. He has endangered your life many times in the past few weeks and the healing will only work for so long, soon you will be immune to it."

"I know Severus, but there are things that must be said, and my father is not the only one that is getting his punches in. Find a place quickly, Lucius will be returning soon with a list of names that are loyal to me and we will need a place to hide them from my father and Dumbledore."

Severus nodded his head then swept out of the room. _Emillie is sure becoming a fine leader, if only her father could see this as a good thing, not a thing to be destroyed. _Severus thought as he stalked down the halls towards his lab. When he finally arrived at his lab he was greeted with the sight of James shirtless attempting to apply a healing salve to his back, where it was severely burned.

"James! What happened?" Severus exclaimed, rushing forward to snatch the bottle of salve out of the other man's hand and began to rub it on himself.

"Stupid mistake; should have seen it coming, ouch shit!"

"That doesn't answer my question Potter." Severus said in deadly tone.

"I turned my back to him too soon and he gave me this little memento for disrespect," James said with a sneer in his voice, Severus just grimaced and continued to apply the salve to James's burned flesh, was blistered nearly everywhere and, in spots, the blisters had burst to relive new pink skin which was also burned.

"Let that sit for a few moments and then I will retreat it. With any luck, it won't scar." James just sat in silence, while Severus moved about his laboratory in a graceful manner.

"Potter Manor," James said a few moments later, breaking the uneasy silence between the two men.

"Pardon?"

"Potter Manor, it hasn't been used in, I donno, thirty years, maybe forty. Many people have forgotten about it, there was a huge fire that destroyed nearly half of the Manor but the restorations have been completed for about six years or so. Dumbledore has never been there, my grandparents were never huge fans of his, and they out right hated Voldemort. It was some of his school friends that set the fire. They were killed by my grandfather trying to protect my grandmother and father who was still in school. They came in the middle of the night to try to kill my grandfather, he was influential in the Ministry and was keeping Voldemort from passing some new laws that he was trying to push through the Ministry."

"Are you saying that there is no one alive that knows the location of the Potter Manor?"

"Only me. It was given to me when my mother pasted right before Harry was born."

"We have to tell Emillie! We must prepare to-" His words were interrupted by a tremendous crash a few floors above and the resounding shouting that followed. Both men looked at each other and said one thing, "Emillie", before launching themselves out of the lab and up three flights of stairs.

"Harry, this is the second time this week you've been sent to my office, and it's only Tuesday!" Professor McGonagall half screeched in exasperation. "What happened this time?"

"It says so on that bit of paper," Harry replied in a bored tone.

"I know perfectly well what it says on the paper, I want to hear what happened from you."

"Same thing as always," Harry said in the same bored tone, now picking at his nails.

"Harry, I know that you are being kept here against your will but these out bursts are not helping Emillie."

That caught Harry's attention, and he was now looking at his Head of House like she held the answers to all of life's questions.

"You've heard from Emillie?" He asked hopefully.

"Not directly. Draco Malfoy has been keeping me informed with the on goings of the Riddle Manor, under a penname of course, and things are not well there."

"Why is Draco writing you?"

"Because Harry, I do not blindly follow Dumbledore, nor do I agree with many of his decisions over the past few years."

"You're on our side?' Harry asked, astonished.

"No Harry, I'm on Emillie's side."

"What do you mean 'Emillie's side'? She stands with her father."

"Not anymore Harry. Young Mr. Malfoy has told me that there are problems between father and daughter that started when she awoke back at the Manor after her stay here."

"That was nearly six months ago!"

"Yes I know, she is very lucky to be alive. But it seems that the two of you have a stronger bond than anyone thought possible. Her fights with her father coincide with your outbursts here. After the first few times I asked Draco to keep a log of when their fights happened and how long they lasted. I have been keeping a log of your unruly behavior and it seems that within minutes of one of you becoming enraged, the other will follow into their own rage."

"You mean that we've been causing each other's rage?"

"Yes and no. A bond such as yours should not be stretched as thin as it has. The bond is playing up your extreme feelings trying to force one of you to look for the other in order to calm down the feelings. So far it has not worked, so the bond has been pushing the feelings further than before. You two must reunite soon or someone will end up blowing up one of the buildings, and with the way Emillie and her father have been fighting, my money is on her."

"Has she been hurt?"

McGonagall did not answer straight away, it seemed as if she was searching for the correct words to describe Emillie's situation.

"Has she been hurt?" Harry asked once more with more force behind his words.

"Nothing that Severus hasn't been able to heal." Harry leaped from his chair, causing the chair to knock over and crash into the wall behind it. He started to pace, not noticing the chair or the shocked looked on McGonagall's face.

"I _have_ to get to her! I need to protect her!"

"I can assure you Mr. Potter that Ms. Riddle is perfectly capable of looking after herself. But if you would calm down I do know where she is planning and how to get you out of here."

Harry sat down in the second chair that was seated in front of McGonagall's desk and waited for her to continue. McGonagall took a moment to collect her thoughts, what she was about to tell Harry could cost them both their lives.

"Emillie has been working with the help of Severus, Lucius and your father to formulate a plan to get out from under her father's thumb and to rescue you but there has been complications. Please Mr. Potter, let me finish." McGonagall said when it looked like Harry might try to interrupt. "Voldemort has taken steps to insure his immortality, Emillie has had James look into the matter and so far they have found out what Voldemort has done but not how to undo it. Also, there is the small matter of finding a new residence. Emillie and her father have been fighting almost daily as you now realize, and their fights are becoming more violent with each passing hour. They must find a new location or rise losing Emillie forever. This is where you come in Harry. James has surely thought about using the old Potter Manor but no one has been there in years. James knows its location but he can not bring anyone into the Manor without the Potter Heir being present."

Harry sat in silence. He was needed to open the Potter Manor, but he was trapped at Hogwarts.

"Professor, why are you telling me this? I can't do anything to help them."

"That's where I come in. There is a small window each month where the collar is renewed, during this time the power is weakened and I will be able to remove it, but we must do this at the border of the school's wards. Dumbledore will know within minutes that the collar has been tampered with."

"When?" Harry asked, looking hopeful for the first time in weeks.

"Two weeks, at midnight. Meet me near the Forbidden Forest. You will be serving detention with me there."

"Yes, Professor."

"Oh, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said as Harry made his way to the door. "Do try and not let this happen again."

"Yes Professor." Harry said with a small smile before making his was out of the office and down to the Great Hall. _Now, if only things would go according to plan._

"My lord I believe we have a traitor among us." The small, rat like man said groveling in front of Voldemort and the rest of the Death Eaters. Ever since Emillie's recovery, and her continuous fights with her father, Death Eaters had been coming forward with 'information' about traitors within the manor. James and Severus, who were standing near the back of the room acting more like guards than actual participants, rolled their eyes at each other.

"What makes your claim any different than the others?" Voldemort asked.

"I have proof, my lord. I heard three men talking about leaving your service to follow your daughter. They are looking for a new place to set up headquarters."

"These are serious accusations. Who were these men?"

"I never saw their faces but they are close to the Dark Princess."

"My lord, this is absurd!" Lucius exclaimed, unable to hold himself back any longer. "The three closest men to her are Potter, Snape and myself. My lord, we are still loyal to you. It is clear what this _man_ is trying to do! He is trying to discredit those closest to you to gain power and over throw you!"

"Is this true?" Voldemort asked the man still kneeling in front of him.

"N-no my lord! Malfoy lies!"

"Enough! Lock him up! I'll kill him later. Malfoy, is my daughter planning to move against me?"

"No sir! She is just concerned for her bonded; she is still loyal to you and your cause."

"Fetch her." With that dismissal, Lucius and James left the meeting hall and started walking to Emillie's rooms.

"We must get out of here," James said quietly.

"Draco got a message from McGonagall. Two weeks."

"That's not near soon enough. Why did my fool of parents name Harry as the heir and not me?"

"It's the magic they worked-"

"I know what it is! I just don't like it! I'm trying to keep both my son and his bonded safe and I'm relying on my son to keep me safe!"

"James, I know. But where can we go? Every place is either too hard to protect or he knows about them."

"London."

"What?"

"London. Sirius's parents had a house there; he hasn't been back in years."

"James, Black has hated you since the day Harry was born! You heard what happened at Hogwarts."

"Two weeks. That's all we need. Sirius will still be at Hogwarts. He'll never know!"

"It's too dangerous."

"And staying here isn't? Every day Emillie is beaten near death by the hands of her father. You, Severus and I have to cover up every move we make, and evidently we haven't been doing a very good job of it. You just sentenced a man to death to cover up our on goings."

"He was stealing money from the Dark Lord, and spilling secrets to the Ministry for cash. I told the Dark Lord this, but he was not convinced until tonight."

"What changed tonight?"

"The lies, and he was wearing some very expensive robes. Bran new. You don't make that type of money as the messenger that he was pretending to be."

"You are something else, my friend."

"Why thank you." Lucius said as he reached out to knock on Emillie's chamber doors.

"State your name and purpose."

"Em, its James and Lucius. Your father would like to see you." Emillie jerked the door open to look at the men standing outside of it.

"Like hell that's all he wants."

"Well, that is what he is claiming."

"We cannot stay here any longer. I won't survive another encounter with my esteemed father."

"I know a place-"

"James it's not safe-"

"It's hell of a lot safer than staying here!"

"Gentlemen, maybe we should move this _into my rooms_." Emillie said pointedly, gesturing for them to step into her room. "Now what is this all about James?"

"Well, as it has become apparent that we have to relocate sooner than later. There may be a place where we can move into temporarily until we can find a safer place." James said.

"What it is is madness. We won't be safe there!" Lucius exclaimed, making a move to push James.

"No! Lucius, don't, we cannot be fighting between us. James, what are you talking about?"

"An old friend of mine-"

"Former friend, new enemy." Lucius mumbled.

"-has a family home," James continued as if he had not been interrupted, "in London that I know he hasn't been to in over twenty years. It should be relatively safe for a few weeks, until we can get Harry back."

"Why can't Harry come now?"

"The collar that Dumbledore place on Harry will only be able to be removed at the end of the month. Until then he is chained to Hogwarts. But we, and I do mean you, will not last two more weeks in this place. You must leave as soon as possible, yet I do not agree with James' plan. It is too dangerous. The man he speaks of, Sirius Black, has hated the Potter family for fifteen years. He would never allow James to explain why he, Lily and Harry had to move here. It is dangerous, and if he were to come to his home, or have wards around his home, warding against those wearing the mark, well, we shall all surely die."

James and Emillie stared at Lucius in shock; they could feel the anger, the hate, and the fear rolling off of him in waves. Each emotion feeding the others in a giant circle.

"James, what is the chance of this?"

"There's a small chance that Sirius might come to his home, but it's very unlikely. He ran away from that home when he was 16 and came to live with me and my parents until we finished at Hogwarts."

"Is this the only possible location?"

"As far as I can see."

"Very well. How long until my father sends someone else to come looking for me?"

"We've been gone close to ten; I'd give it another five, maybe 10 at the very most. Depends on if something else has captured his attention and how much he really wants to see you."

"Then we have to move quickly. Lucius, gather what you need from your rooms, and from Severus's lab. James, your rooms and Severus's. I'll get everything we need from here. Be quick. Be silent. I'll meet you at the front doors in ten minutes. Be there!"

With that the two men left her rooms in a quick but silent jog, heading off to do their respective jobs. Emillie turned to her bedroom with her wand out. With a quick flick several travel trunks zipped out from under the bed and popped themselves open. Another wave and Emillie's clothes were folding into one trunk, books and papers in the second, and any important personal items along with some liens into the third. With a third and final flick the trunks shrank and fitted themselves into a pocket of the black pants that had been left out on her bed when the rest of her clothes had been folded away. Emillie raced over to her bed, striping her night clothes to pull on her black outfit. Black dragon hide enforced denim jeans were pulled on over her scared legs, followed by a black cotton shirt which was also lined with dragon hide, she pulled on her new pair of warrior boots, tucking her pants into them, then finally she swung on her black travel robe and her black mask. Six minutes after she had set her friend's fathers off to do their work she was finished and was racing down the hall to the staircase.

James met her there two minutes after she had arrived but Lucius had yet to be seen.

"Do think someone found him?" Emillie asked in a hushed voice.

"Unlikely," James answered. "He probably went and did some fool thing."

"Yes," answered Lucius's voice behind them, scaring the two completely. "I went and did some fool thing of grabbing Severus."

"Were you followed? Or seen?" Emillie asked.

"Not that I know of." Emillie nodded and looked out from their hiding place right off the main entrance. She motioned them to follow her as she eased herself out into the open.

"My, my, my. What is this? James Potter, Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape trying to sneak out of the manor like they've done something wrong? Well, I'd never. And, oh! lookie here, the Dark Princess is with you. Now you weren't trying to steal her were you? Because that would be very foolish."

They were caught, and now the only question was how were they leaving this hall. Dead? Or Alive?

**I'm sorry, I know I'm mean. I don't update in forever and then it's a much shorter chapter and on top of everything, a tinsy winsy little cliffy. Will ya'll ever be able to forgive me? I hope so, because I have not forgotten this story, I've just had classes and they are taking up much more of my time than I had realized. **

**Please Revue and let me know what ya'll think!**

**Btw: I did change my penname it's now **_**southernvanphry**_** in a few weeks, or months this name will become clear if ya'll stick with following my different stories. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6** 'Dividing Lines'

Emillie stood defiantly against one of her father's followers. The alarm had yet to be made so there was still time for them to make a clean escape, unfortunately that probably meant killing Avery. James, Lucius, and Severus moved to stay in front of her, blocking Avery's raised wand, the others whom had decided to change sides stood behind Emillie, ready to protect her if the need arises.

"Avery, go back inside." James said sternly.

"Oh I don't think so Potter. No, you see, our Master won't be very happy if you take his most prized possession away from him."

"She is _not_ a _possession_." Severus hissed angrily.

"Oh yes she is. She was bred for this. Why do you think Bella was chosen?" Avery said with a maniacal laugh.

"Uncle Sev," Emillie sounding like a small, lost child. "What is he saying?"

"Em, don't listen to him." Severus said, his eyes never the small smirking man in front of them.

"Oh she doesn't know? Oh this is just perfect." Avery sneered. "Did you ever wonder who your mother is?"

"Avery, don't." James warned.

"Well if you won't want me doing that, why don't I do this?" Avery said, raising his was above his head and sent up a jet of neon yellow light. The entire manor lit up like it was midday.

"Oh fuck." Emillie said under her breath. The alarms around the manor were going off, waking the inhabits of the Manor and bringing them running towards the entrance hall. "Uh…we better get out of here…like now."

"I agree. Let's go." Lucius answered, moving towards Emillie. James and Severus started moving back towards Emillie and Lucius. More of Voldemort's loyal followers started arriving in the entrance hall.

"Oh fuck." Emillie cursed again, walking faster towards the door. "He's coming."

"Oh no dear one, I am already here." Said a cold voice coming down the stairs making Emillie and those with her stop short. "And what pray tell are you doing?"

Emillie slowly turned around to look her father in the face. He has slowly been losing his handsome looks over the past several years making his face resemble his snake's more than that of his child's. The silence in the entrance hall was nearly deafening as the father and daughter stared each other down. Lucius, Severus, and James grouped behind Emillie to show that they would stand behind Emillie and not stand with Voldemort.

"You seem to have quite a following my heir. Would you care to explain?"

"Not particularly."

"Would you like me to rephrase that my heir?"

"I am not your anything. You've lost that right."

"I would beg to differ _my daughter_." Voldemort said, stressing the last two words.

"I DO NOT BELONG TO YOU!" Emillie shouted.

"I own you!"

"Like hell you bastard!"

"You will show me some respect!" Voldemort shouted pointing his wand at his daughter and sending off the first spell of the impending battle. The spell was deflected by the barrier that Lucius had enacted around Emillie the moment that Voldemort's voice had been heard.

There was another moment of silence as the shock of Voldemort's public attack on his heir sunk in. Emillie's rage finally boiled over, her eyes seemed to flash, just before she broke down Lucius's wards before letting fly her own spells. The rest of her followers took her aggression as a sign that they too could start their own assault on the opposing force. Emillie's forces fought with her father's forces, not to get into the manor but to escape from it.

"Capture them!" Voldemort shouted as Emillie also shouted, "Pull back! Get to the wards! Now!"

The groups continued to fire spells back and forth as Emillie slowly started to push her group back further out into the front lawn towards the edge of the wards. Lucius and Severus stood five feet in front of Emillie, protecting her from most of the frontal spells, James stood just off of Emillie's right side, doing the same thing as his friends.

"Emillie, why are you doing this to your father?" Voldemort taunted her, trying to get Emillie to get sloppy from her rage but she was too well trained. She was able to block out her father's taunts, but it did not stop her from sending a few back.

"You are not my father!" Emillie shouted.

"You should stand by your family Emillie, not traitors."

"You have not acted like my family for years! I will not start treating you like the family that I do not have!"

"What about your mother?" He asked trying to stall his daughter from reaching the edge of the wards, some fifty feet behind the first man in Emillie's group, fifteen feet behind Emillie.

"What about her? You've made sure that I never knew who she was! And frankly I don't give damn!" She shouted, and started moving her group closer to the wards. Her father's words were starting to their desired effect.

"You've never wanted to know?"

"I don't give a damn! Get through the wards! Go!" One by one men, and a few women, started to slip past the wards and disappearing. Within five minutes the only ones left within the wards were James, Severus, Lucius, and Emillie, the men tighten ranks around the young woman.

"Emillie go." James said, fending off a few curses.

"Not until we are all on the other side." She said, sending a few returning cursing.

"My heir, where do you think you will go?" Voldemort asked as the foursome quickly made their way the final few feet to the edge of the wards.

"Going somewhere safe."

"Safer than here? No place is safer."

"Maybe not for you, but there is for me."

"And what makes you think that I'm just going to let you leave?"

"Ah, I was hoping that it would not come to this."

"And why is that?"

Emillie just smiled. "Father, we have already left. What you are talking to is a live image of me, not me personally. Handy little spell don't you think? Invented it myself. Well father, I'll see you in hell." Then the image blinked out of existence, leaving Voldemort staring at the spot where his daughter had stood. The image looked so real, so life like.

"DAMNIT! CRABE! GOYLE! FIND THEM! NOW!" He shouted, looking for the men that were supposed to be keeping guard and making sure that no one left; but he could not find them. "That girl was a mistake, I will rectify all mistakes," he murmured into the cool night air before stalking off to find his missing guards.

Emillie stumbled into James as they landed outside of the old London flat. James had already told those in the group the address rundown home and they all watched as the house seemed to materialize right before their eyes.

"Alright, when we enter be quiet, the late Mrs. Black's painting tends to get feisty when woken." James said as he led the group up the crumbling stairs and into the darken entryway. No one had been in the house in years, Sirius had obviously not moved back home after his parents had died, but the dark, dusty home was the best protection that they were able to find on such short notice. As people quietly explored the forgotten house they were all glad that this was a very temporary solution, and in a little over two weeks they would be leaving here for nicer accommodations.

Harry paced around the Gryffindor boy's dorm, his pack was filled with everything he thought he might need, along with a few that he didn't, like the Marauder's Map that he swiped from Filch's office two weeks ago for his dad.

_Thirty minutes_. He thought to himself, _just thirty more minutes before I need to go meet McGonagall. _

Another turn around dorm; in the past months that he had been trapped at Hogwarts much had changed. The first few days he had been allowed to stay in the Slytherin dorm with his classmates but after his little stunt with his godfathers, Harry had been transferred to the Gryffindor dorm, which of course had been as well received as hepatitis. Harry had been forced to erect wards around his bed at night to keep the other boys from harming while he slept, and he warded his belongings to keep unwanted visitors from destroying the contents of his trunk. All in all, he was glad for the chance to be leaving the castle, even if it could mean starting the war that no one wanted to begin.

Five minutes, time to leave the dorm. Harry pulled on his father's invisibility cloak, thankfully, he had been able to keep it hidden from Dumbledore and his dorm mates, then headed down the stairs and out of the empty common room. The castle was quiet, no one was walking the halls; the ghosts seem to be absent as well. Harry made it down to the forest in ten minutes, which put him five minutes ahead of McGonagall. Harry hid himself in the shadows of the trees to wait for McGonagall. Ten minutes later, she came running toward him, her wand drawn.

"Harry! Go!" She pointed her wand at Harry's neck and he felt the collar lift.

"Professor! What is going on?"

"No time. Emily has run into trouble, go straight to the Potter Manor, be prepared for them! Go!"

"You never told me where it is!" Harry said frantically. McGonagall pointed her wand again at Harry uttering a spell.

"Go!" There was a commotion behind them; shouts of 'Where did she go?', 'Don't let her or Harry get away!' and 'Get the wards up!'

"Harry! Go!" Harry just looked at her, and then turned on the spot disappearing from the Hogwarts grounds. McGonagall turned to look behind her; her pursuers were closing in, forcing her to run deeper into the woods so she too could leave the Hogwarts grounds.

"Minerva!" A voice called behind her but she did not slow down. "Minerva, why are you running from me? You know that you can trust me!"

"No Albus, I no longer can." She had entered a large field and turned to face her employer and former friend. "I no longer know you, what you stand for or why you are hunting these children. I cannot trust you anymore."

"Minerva, that's simply foolish. Come back to the castle and tell me where Harry has run off to."

"Is it Albus? You hunt these children as a hunter stalks a doe. They cannot harm you! They wish to end the war and fix our world. I will not be going anywhere with you and you will never find Harry. He's gone."

"Don't you see Minerva? They are the ones who are going to begin the war; they will bring an end to our world and put us all at risk. They must be stopped! I will stop them and you if I must. It is for the greater good." Dumbledore drew his wand from the depths of his robes and pointed at McGonagall.

"Do you hear yourself? You sound like the man you have made Tom out to be in the papers. This will end Albus, and I will help them end it," she said, raising her own wand.

"You are a fool Minerva. I will end you, and them. They will not stand in my way!" Dumbledore sent a few blasts of lights towards his long time friend, which she blocked before sending a stunner at Dumbledore.

"You can stay there until someone finds you. The difference between you and me Albus is that I believe in what I am fighting for." With that, she turned and was gone leaving Dumbledore standing by himself in the clearing.

A _fool Minerva. If you wish to act like one of them, then you shall die as one of them._ Dumbledore thought venomously as he lay in the forest waiting for someone to find him.

Minerva popped into solid form outside of the Black house; she was to lead Emillie and her group to the Potter Manor, but they were late. Several minutes late by Minerva's watch; several more minutes past before she heard the faint sounds of shouting drifting towards her from the house.

_That's odd. The wards should be up so no sound should be able to get out. _Minerva thought as she crept down the street, closer to the house, stopping at one of the trees that lined the street to conceal herself in order to get a better look at the house. More shouts met her ears and where followed by several flashes of light. Minerva snuck closer to the apparent fighting; she was met by the sight of a very pissed off Emillie leading the fight against several of her father's followers and a few Order members, including a very pissed off Sirius Black. Beside her were Severus, James, Lucius and Draco fighting to get out of the wards that Sirius's father had erected around his London home.

"Fuckers!" Emillie shouted and sent a few more spells towards the oncoming hooded men. "You fools! Let us leave!"

"Your father wishes you home, and if you insist, you shall return to him in a coffin."

"We can help you with that Avery," Sirius shouted, aiming spells at his former friends, however mad he was at the Riddle girl and at his godson, he could never kill a child, or even try to kill one, his fight with Harry several months earlier had contained nothing from his end over a few minor cutting spells, but his friends were adults and therefore, free game.

"Oh like hell!" Emillie shouted back; Emillie was a formable opponent on her worst days, but when she got mad, everything in her path was laid to waste. At the words of her opponent something switched in Emillie's mind and she started to aim to kill instead of incapacitate. In a few short minutes, their attackers where down and Emillie was ushering her small group, which seemed to include several more people than Minerva had originally thought, down the last few hundred feet to where Minerva was watching.

"Emillie, what happened?" Minerva asked concerned, her eyes looking from one person to the next, taking in the various bruises, cuts, and in Draco's case, broken bones.

"Just a continuation of a family spat," Emillie said, whipping impatiently at the blood that was dripping down her face, "and a pissed off landowner. Let's go before my dear old father decides that he wants to show me off himself, again."

"Oh, you mean like this my dear daughter?" A cold voice sneered from behind the group.

"Fuck! Go!" She said pushing at Minerva before turning to face her father.

"Whatever are you doing out of the house daddy? It's not safe you know a bunch of mean people want you gone." Emillie said in a false sweet tone; her father was alone, which was surprising, but it would be easier for her group to leave.

"Why, aren't you a caring child. May I ask what you are doing out here if it is so dangerous?"

Harry took in his surrounding, he was standing in an old forest, everything was covered in snow but it was far from beautiful, the pale moonlight filtering in through the bare branches gave the forest an eerie glow. As far as Harry could tell, the trees began to thin out some a ways to his right, which means that there must be some form of clearing, road or settlement off that way. He slowly picked through the snow-covered underbrush, he was forced to stop several time to remove his robes from thorns that had latched onto them. Twenty minutes later, he was standing at the edge of what felt like a very powerful ward. From this side of the ward all he could see was a medium sized snow covered clearing that was surrounded by the forest. Harry took a calming in breath in a desperate attempt to calm his heart rate before stepping into the ward. Energy and magic buzzed around him; at first, it was fast and angry but then it became slow and calming, as if the ward was recognizing Harry. Harry took another step through the ward and the buzzing stopped, and so did Harry when he saw what he had walked into. The land was breathtaking, the forest encompassed the property in a large circle with the house at its center. The house was so much more than just a house, it stood four stories tall and Harry counted 25 widows lined up on each level. It was made of some sort of white stone that Harry could not name, with mahogany trim around each window and the large front doors. The land surrounding the manor was slightly hilly with the manor sitting on the top of the tallest hill, there were a few landscaping features Harry could discern from the snow covered mounds, and a large frozen pond adjacent to the house.

After the initial shock of the Potter Manor wore off, Harry slowly started to make his way up the hill to the front doors. He was not sure what to expect when he finally opened the large ornate doors but the small group of house-elves that greeted him with a chores of "Master Potter" was certainly not on the top of his list, but that is what he got. About twenty small, relatively well-dressed elves stood before him bowing and murmuring their greeting.

"Master Potter, we has a waited you."

"What do you mean?"

"Wes had been waiting for you to return."

"I've never been here before…I'm sorry what is your name?"

"Missy sir. And sir…yous has been here before…it has been years though. Comes, I show yous."

"Alright, but first who are all the other?"

"They are your elves sir."

"I know, but I would like to know their names."

"You honor us sir." Missy proceeded to introduce Harry to the other elves and then shooed them away to finish their work, which had been interrupted by Harry's appearance. Harry watched as the elves disappeared down different hallways and through several doors.

"Master Harry would you like to see your home?"

"Yes Missy that would be good." Missy spent the next two hours showing Harry the large estate. There were many bedrooms and bathrooms along with a training room, a large library, a formal dining room, two ballrooms and many small parlors and lounges.

"How is it that no one has been here in nearly two decades?"

"Things changes sir. Yous and yours parents were suppose to comes and lives here, but things changes."

"But you said I was here before."

"Yous were. When you were just hours old. Master James and Mistress Lily had to add your bloods to the wards. It mades you the heir."

"Why would they do that?"

"Missy does not know sir."

"Well doesn't matter right now, we need to get ready. There is a group of people arriving."

"How manys sir?"

"Two dozen or so."

"Missy will get some elves to set of rooms ready, and gets some food cooked."

"Thank you Missy."

"Is there anything Missy can get you Master Harry?"

"Just a glass of water. I'll eat when everyone gets here."

"Ok Master Harry," Missy said before popping away.

"Where are you Em?" Harry said to himself, looking out a window to the land beyond.

"Is everyone here?" Emillie asked, holding James's handkerchief to a cut on her arm. After a chorus of yeses, Emillie looked at Minerva who was supporting Draco. "Where to now?"

"Up the hill, you'll feel the pulse of the wards. The password is Nymph."

"Nymph. Got it, James. You and Lucius take Draco. Minerva, you go with them. The rest of you follow them, Severus and I will bring up the back. Go!"

Minerva passed Draco over to his father, and then the group set off towards the wards. Once James, Lucius and Minerva had led the group a bit ahead, Emillie and Severus took off after them, wands drawn and at the ready. They met no resistance as they ran toward the wards.

"How far are we from the wards?" Emillie asked.

"It shouldn't be too much further," Severus panted. "I can't hear the others anymore."

After a few more minutes of running, Emillie ran into the wards and nearly fell down from the force of running into the wards. Severus held onto her as she tried to find her balance. Severus said the password to the wards and helped Emillie through. The others were waiting for Severus and Emillie to cross over.

"What the hell are you still doing here?" Emillie yelled at them. "Get to the house! Draco needs help! Lucius get him up there!" At her words, everyone took off running towards the manor, Lucius holding tightly to his son.

"Emillie? Emillie where are you?" James asked, worried when he didn't see her running alongside them anymore. "Shit! Severus come with me! We need to find her! Minerva, Lucius get to the house. Get Harry."

"Where are you going? We are in the wards." Lucius yelled at their retreating backs.

"She's been hurt," James yelled back, still running. "EM! Where are you! EM!"

"You two are idiots," Emillie panted, limping up to them. She was still holding her arm which was bleeding heavily, and she was looking like she was about to pass out. James rushed to her side pulling one arm over his shoulder Severus mirroring is actions.

"You look like you're about to collapse."

"I'm fine. Get inside." James rolled his eyes, pulled Emillie out of Severus's arms and into his bridal style. Once he had a firm hold on Emillie, he took off in a sprint for the Manor which they could now see up ahead. The door was flung open as soon as the two men were bathed in the light coming from the manor.

"Em? Em!" Harry called, running out to meet his father. "What happened to her?" He asked, reaching to take her into his own embrace.

"We met some trouble leaving Riddle Manor and then the Black house in London," James said, guiding Harry back into the warmth the house provided. "How was it getting out of Hogwarts?"

"A little trouble from Dumbledore but apparently Minerva was about to get out of there alright. What happened exactly to her?"

"A few cuts from wayward spells I believe. Nothing a good night's rest and a blood replenishing potion won't cure. Now Draco on the other hand…"

"I told Missy to take them to the room prepared for Draco. Up this way. Missy!"

"Yes Master Harry." The elf said running to keep up with the quickly moving men.

"Get a first aid kit. We need bandages, healing potions, blood replenishing potions-"

"Splints, bone re-growth potions, pain killers. Anything and everything you have." Severus interjected.

"Yes Master Harry. Yes sir," she answered then popped away. Harry led his father and Severus to the room where Lucius and Minerva were working diligently on Draco to heal his broken bones and internal injuries.

"Missy is bringing up more supplies. How is he doing?"

"Not a good as I would like. Severus can you come help with him?" Lucius said.

"Yes. Harry, when Missy gets here clean Emillie's wounds and give her one of the potions, if her color does not improve within ten minutes give her another one. If still nothing happens then we will have to try more aggressive measures. Lucius, I need hot water and clean towels." Severus said walking over to Draco's bed, casting diagnostic spells over the young man. "Why am I always acting as a Healer?"

"Because my friend, you are the only one with enough experience with potions and an anatomy. How bad is he?" Lucius asked, handing over the towels, bowl of water and the supplies that Missy had just brought in.

"Not as bad as I had feared. He has a few broken bones, some blood loss, and a nasty blow to the head but he should be fine by morning. Hand me one of the bottles of cleansing potions. Harry, how is she?"

"Fine. I've got her cuts cleaned and healing, her color is starting to come back from the potion and her breathing is easier. I think she just needs some sleep now. I am going to move her to her room. Its two doors down on the right." Harry lifted her once again and smiled at his father who had held the door open for his son and his son's bonded.

An hour later James, Severus, Lucius and Minerva were sitting in a parlor on the same floor as the bedrooms Harry had the elves set up for them, the rest of the group had been separated among the other halls, but this hall was reserved for family. Draco was healing nicely and was asleep with one of the house elves, Taren, watching over him. Emillie was still asleep, and the last time James had checked on her, Harry hadn't left her side and had fallen asleep in a chair next to her bed, holding her hand.

"We were very lucky today." Lucius commented, taking a swig of the wine he had been nursing for the last twenty minutes.

"Yes. We've been very lucky the last few weeks." James had been staring into the fire for a while now and had not made much in the way of conversation.

"Where do we go from here?" Minerva asked.

"That's something we will have to talk about once everyone is healed. We still have many people to get out of harm's way before we can hope to move against Dumbledore and Tom." Lucius said.

"I still cannot believe we are planning to move against the two most powerful men of our time. Wouldn't it be easier to let them kill off each other before we move in?"

"It would be, but there would be more innocent deaths." Severus answered.

"We have a long way to go before we are safe again." James said, getting up and moving towards the door. "Good night. I'll see you in a few hours."

The others answered with their 'good nights' and before long everyone was asleep in their own beds except for Harry who was still asleep in a chair in Emillie's room.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7** 'Simple Pleasures'

The next day dawned clear and cold. A stiff wind that had been blowing since they had arrived the night before had blown their footprints away leaving nothing but a large unmarked expanse of snowy ground. James stood looking out across the land of his ancestral home from a bay window in the dining hall. He was not sure how to feel about being back in the home that his parents had moved out of when he was just a newborn. One of the house elves popped up next to James holding a silver tray with a steaming pot of coffee, a cup and saucer, and bowels filled with sugar, cream and milk. James took the cup of coffee-black-with a small thank you and the elf popped away leaving James standing alone once more.

"You are up ungodly early." Severus said coming to stand next to James. "Why are you up?"

"Couldn't sleep. How's Emillie?"

"Recovering. She should wake in a few hours. Harry is in the shower."

"That's good. Do you know if he slept any last night?"

"He said that he had, but I'll scan him once he comes downstairs."

"Thank you Severus, you have no idea what this means to me."

"I have an idea, those three children are the most important things in my life right now."

"Even more important than your potions?"

"Not sure I would go that far." Severus said with a laugh, James joining him. "Where's Lucius?" Severus asked once they had stopped laughing.

"Oh you know, asleep or primping. He and Draco take forever on their hair, they are worst than any girl I ever dated."

"I'm not sure if I should take offense to that or not James." A voice drawled from the opposite side of the room.

"Ah Lucius, great to have you finally join us. How is Draco this morning?"

"Doing much better than I could have hoped. He's bones have all healed, and he's getting some color back. He should be fully recovered in a day or two."

"That's good, very good. We must talk about what happened. We nearly lost Emily last night again, along with Draco. She must not continue to do this."

"And what is she doing James? She got us out of the manor safely, then out of London; she and Harry are the only people with any hope of defeating Tom and Dumbledore. We must continue to train them both!"

"Lucius, it is not that simple! They are children! We must not let them to be hurt time and time again. Emillie has already been put through some of the worst kind of hell. Are we just to stand by and allow this to happen again?"

"And what would you like us to do James? We tried hiding them, we tried protecting them and it did not work. The only thing that had any chance of working was teaching them to fight. Training them is the only way to keep us all alive during whatever war is to come. Lucius, help me talk sense into him."

"Severus is right, James. We must all work together to train all three of them to the best of our abilities." Minerva said, walking into the room.

"Minerva, don't encourage them! How can three children stand up to the two most powerful men in the world?"

"We will have to prepare them. Between the four of us, we know the weaknesses of Tom and Albus so we are able to prepare them for whatever may come their way. And they aren't children anymore, Draco will turn seventeen in a few weeks, and once they are seventeen their full power will be unlocked. There will be no force on this earth that could stop them."

Harry woke up in his own bed with no recollection of returning to his new room. The last thing he remembered was sitting in a chair next to the sleeping form of Emillie. He sat up in bed and took in his surroundings; he was seated in the middle of a king sized canopy bed with dark blue silk sheets and comforter; there was a chest of draws and an two doors against the opposite wall, all in dark hard woods; to his right was a large three panel bay window with a window seat covered in the same dark blue material that covered the bed; dark wood covered the floors. All of these features made the room dark yet majestic and made Harry feel slightly out of place. He got out of bed and made his way towards the two doors, he tried one which led to a large walk in closest-the house elves had already put his few possessions into it, the other, he assumed, led to a bathroom, something he was in desperate need of. Walking through the other door left Harry stunned, the whole room seemed to be carved out of a blue stone. Everything had silver trimmings, and the silver had been worked into the stone on the walls, floors and counters.

Nearly an hour later Harry reemerged from the bathroom, steam billowing out around his feet. The hot shower he had taken had allowed him time to think and relax. The last few days and weeks had been hard; it was nearly impossible to think that after fighting for so long to get Emillie out of danger and getting them back under the same roof that it had finally happened. Emillie was not only in the same house, but in a room just down the hall from where he was now.

_Finally_, he thought to himself. _She's finally back with me. We can now work on righting the wrongs that Dumbledore and her father have committed to the Wizarding world. Then we can move on from this._ He smiled to himself before reentering the closest and getting dress. Once he was dressed he made his way out into the ornate hall, but he took no notice of the detailed tapestries nor of the delicate urns on ancient tables, his only concern was for the carved cherry door adjacent to his own. Through that door lay Emillie and all he wanted was to see her awake and smiling, something that he had not seen in nearly a year.

"Em?" He asked knocking softly on the door, opening the door slightly to peer inside. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah Harry. Draco's here too. Come on in." Emillie said, and Harry walked into the room to see Emillie laying in the middle of her large bed, and Draco sitting in a wingback chair with his feet propped up on the bed.

"Draco, how are you feeling?" Harry asked, coming fully into the room.

"Much better, thanks. And you?"

"Brilliant, now that everyone is back together. Em, how are you?"

"Good but tired. Severus worked his magic yet again. Harry, come here." Emillie said, patting the bed next to her.

"I can't believe we are all back together again. Is anyone hungry?"

"Yeah a bit." Draco answered with Emillie nodding her agreement.

"Missy," Harry called as he seated himself next to Emillie on the bed.

Missy popped into the room with a bow and a squeaky "Yes Master Potter?"

"Missy, could you bring us some breakfast?"

"Of course Master Potter. Anything particular yous be wanting?"

"I would like some coffee." Draco said. "Oh and some eggs and bacon please."

"Orange juice, and a blueberry muffin if you have any." Emillie said with a small smile.

"Yes, that sounds good. And Missy? Where is my father and the others?"

"They is in the parlor sir. Eating a small bit of breakfast. Would you like me to get them for yous sir?"

"No Missy, thank you."

"Yes Master Potter. Missy wills be right back with yours foods." With that she popped away with the same small bow she had when she entered.

"You have already gotten the trust of the house elves." Draco observed.

"I think they like having people back in the house. Their cooking is the best I've ever tasted, even better than Hogwarts."

"Really? That's amazing." Draco said, clearly astounded.

"Harry, we must talk about what we are going to do about-"

"No! Absolutely not Em! I've just gotten you back, this can wait until later."

"But Harry…"

"No, Emillie!" He nearly shouted before calming down. "All I want is for a little while to not have to worry about anything that is happening in the world, I want it to be like old times of having breakfast in bed and just joking around."

Emillie smiled at Harry and moved closer to him. "Alright. I think we can manage that. Come on Draco, you need to be up here to for this to work." Draco climbed into the large canopy bed on the other side of Emillie.

Three hours later Harry, Draco, and Emillie meet with the adults in the Potter Family Library. The library was a well known rumor in the academic circles as being one of the most well stocked and ornate libraries known to man. People have theorized that there were scrolls from the library at Alexandra, tablets from Rome, and even pottery from Lesbos in Greece. No one has seen the library outside of the Potter family until now. Severus could hardly keep focus on the others in the room, all the books that had not been read in over forty years, all the books on old potions long forgotten.

"Severus would you please sit down! There will be plenty of time for you to read all these books after we talk."

"Well, we are still waiting the children so I don't see why I can't take a look see around this amazing library. Just because you don't respect these books James doesn't mean that the rest of don't."

"I don't think you are respecting them as much as wanting to take them to bed," Lucius sneered taking a seat next to James by the large ornate fireplace in the center of the room.

"Luc that is quiet enough. Sev why don't take a seat, have a glass of wine."

"James don't you think it's a bit early for wine?"

"What? It's two in the afternoon."

"Like I said, a bit early." Severus said, still looking at the shelves of books.

"Minerva, tell them that it's perfectly acceptable to have a small glass of wine when you are among friends."

Minerva looked up from the book of Transfiguration she had found to look over her glasses at the two friends in wingback chairs, then glanced at the other man who was still scanning the books.

"James do not bring me into these petty squabbles of yours. Just wait calmly for Harry, Emillie and Draco to come down. It should not be too much longer before they emerge from their reunion." Minerva said in a mothering voice, returning to her book.

Ten minutes later, they heard laughter drifting down the hallway into the library; it was soon followed by Draco, Harry, and Emillie entering the library arm in arm, as if they had never been separated. The three men smiled at the sight of the children happy and together; for too long those smiles and the sound of their laughter had been absent.

"Is everyone feeling alright?" Severus inquired, abandoning his examination of the bookshelves to examine the three teens.

"I'm fine, but Draco and Emillie are still a bit tired." Harry answered, helping Emillie into a chair next to James as Lucius helped his son into another empty chair.

"Harry, stop worrying, I'm fine. Nothing a nice cup of tea won't fix."

"I'll be the judge of that. Now, sit still and let me scan you. Draco, don't go anywhere, you're next." Severus said running his wand over Emillie, casting several spells.

"I don't want to be scanned Uncle Sev. I'm completely fine!"

"Like I said to Emillie, I'll be the judge of that, now sit still. Have some tea." Severus said without looking up from Emillie. Draco traded an eye roll with Harry as Harry sat down in an empty chair as their fathers prepared them cups of tea.

"Well Emillie, other than some bruising and a few sore spots, you'll be fine. Just take it easy, no broom rides, horses or any other mount for at least a week, maybe a week and a half. Just take it easy. And no training!" Severus said, moving away from Emillie's chair and to Draco's. "You're turn Draco, put down the tea."

"Fine Uncle Sev, but I'm fine." Draco said setting his tea down and allowing Severus to turn his wand upon him. After a few moments, Draco was said to of good health and was told the same as Emillie. Severus turned to Harry. When Harry saw Severus's gaze he let out a loud exclamation.

"You cannot be serious Sev! I wasn't even hurt last night!"

"Maybe not, but you were in that castle for months. I want to make sure that you are not seriously hurt."

"Harry just let him run the scans." James said.

"Fine, run your scans." Harry said and Severus set to work. He worked nearly twice as long on Harry than he did on either Emillie or Draco.

"Severus, what's wrong?" James said, suddenly very serious.

"Harry?" Severus asked. "What did they do to you?"

"What? Nothing." Harry tried to lie.

"Harry?" Emillie's worried voice asked. "What happened there?"

"Training." Harry whispered.

"Training?" Severus asked, outraged. "What kind of _training_?"

"Not the nice kind." Harry looked around at the worried faces of his loved ones.

"Harry," Minerva started. "Was subjected to the anger of his first set of godfathers."

"WHAT?" James roared, jumping so fast out of his chair that it toppled over. "What did those two do to my boy?"

"I do not know everything, but Harry was taken to the Hospital Wing on more than one occasion after his sessions…"

"Professor that is enough, please." Harry said, not looking anyone in the eye. "They were sent to try to figure out how much I knew. They wanted to break me, they were told to use whatever means necessary to break me. I fought back with everything I had, mostly with wandless and nonverbal spells, but they liked it. For every time I defeated them, I was punished twice as hard. Soon I just stopped fighting back and just defended myself, I allowed a few spells to hit me to make them think that they were making progress with me, but nothing helped. Each day I went without break was rewarded with another hour of 'training'. I wouldn't have held out much longer if Minerva hadn't been able to get me out of there."

"Oh Harry!" Emillie cried rushing over to him, falling beside him. "If I had known, I would have figured something out sooner."

"Em, it's not your fault. I knew when I went in to get you out that if I were taken then I was not going be treated well. Do not blame yourself!"

"How can I not. It is my…"

"No! Em, however bad they did or were going to treat me it was nothing compared to what they were doing to you!"

Everyone sat in stunned silence at what they had heard. How could anyone do what they had done to these two children? It was just downright evil.

"Something must been done. They must be stopped and soon!" Lucius said, breaking his silence.

"And what exactly would you like is to do? They must recover, and we must have a plan. Going into any battle with half a plan will get us killed! We need a plan, we need more people if we are to take on the two most powerful men in the country." James said, the voice of reason for the first time that day.

"Fine we get a plan, we get people but we must do it quickly. This cannot continue!"

"And we will Lucius, we will but first let us rest and recover. This is the first time we have been together in over a year, let us enjoy it for a few days before we go back to war." Minerva said. Everyone agreed and Lucius calmed down.

"Severus," James said looking over to his old friend. "What did your scans show?"

"Of Harry?" Severus asked, then continued after James nodded his head in agreement. "He's got many broken bones that healed incorrectly, they will have to be re-broken and then healed properly. He also shows signs of mild poisoning, has scars from whips and burns. I can heal everything but it will take time. The most important thing is the unhealed breaks. Harry, I'm sorry but you are in for a ruff few days."

"Yeah, I guessed as much. Can I at least have the afternoon to explore the Manor some with Em and Draco?"

"Let me scan once more to make sure that there is nothing immediate that needs to be healed and then yes, we can start on the re-healing tonight. That way you can sleep through most of the worst pain." Severus got up and rescanned all of Harry's skeletal system.

"Nothing that is life threatening. You three can go and explore, be regular teens for once." Severus said with a smile, stepping away from Harry and taking a seat in the chair that Emillie had vacated. Harry smiled at Severus then looked at his betrothed and best friend before gingerly getting up, pulling Emillie up with him.

"Come on, I'll get Missy to show us around."

"Missy?" James inquired.

"The head house elf." Harry answered then he along with Emillie and Draco headed back out of the library, Draco and Harry on either side of Emillie, making sure her steps did not falter.

For the next three hours while the adults talked and read in the library, Emillie, Draco, and Harry along with their small house elf guide explored the old Potter Manor. Some parts of the manor had not seen human company in over a century. Portraits told stories of old Potters long dead; tapestries showed the history of magic in England; vases from Rome, Egypt and Greece; art work that the human population had thought to be destroyed years before; Missy hid nothing from the small group.

"Harry, this is amazing! Hundreds of years of history are in these halls, thousands maybe. Some of these vases have to be from the BC era."

"I know Em," Harry said, softly fingering an old tapestry. "I can hardly believe it for myself."

"Holy hell! Guys, come look at this, it's Merlin!" Draco said looking at a particularly old tapestry, as he walked down the hundred foot fabric his excitement grew. "It's…it's the freaking history of how to make a potion…a potion that hasn't been seen in a thousand years. We need to get Severus to look at this, but I think this may be…yes it has to be."

"Draco what are you talking about?" Emillie asked.

"It's…it's unbelievable!"

"What?" Harry asked, pulling Emillie to stand next to Draco who was still studying the tapestry excitedly.

"If I am correct, this potion, if administered on a full moon during the summer, allows all whom consume it to see the truth in anything told to them. Now it only lasts for twelve hours at most but this could helps us bring people over to our side, but the side effects can be really bad if brewed incorrectly…I must go get Severus and have him look at this." Draco said excitedly, beginning to rush off in the direction they had just come from.

"Draco wait! Missy, can you go get Sev and bring him here?" Harry said, an arm on Draco's to keep him in place, Missy bowed before popping away to get Severus.

"Why did you have me wait? I could have gotten him."

"Because Draco, this would take less time, and I'm sure you and Sev will need as much time as possible to look over this tapestry and get all the tools necessary to brew such a potion. Knowing you and Sev, you will want as much time as possible."

"Very true Harry, very true." Draco said, his eyes never leaving the colorful threads. Fifteen minutes later Missy showed up with Severus in tow.

The portraits watched as the overly worried headmaster paced his office. For at least a week the headmaster had become more and more agitated, but three days ago, his temper was finally tested to its limits; several rare objects and books had not survived the onslaught. The anger that had risen then had yet to subside and it seemed that until he was the center of the world again, it would remain.

From the ranting that they had heard, the Potter boy and the Transfiguration professor had both vanished into thin air, leaving no hint of where they were going or where they have been, they were just gone. His spies from Riddle's forces had reported that Emillie had disappeared with James Potter, the Malfoys and Severus Snape along with at least two dozen others. There also had been some deserters from both his and Riddle's group, the only assumption to be made is that they had joined Emillie and Harry in whatever ill conceived notion of a war they had.

The portraits shared a look with each other; they had been forced to listen to the headmaster's crazy notions for decades and were growing wiry of his mad notions. Late at night old headmasters and mistresses had been traveling to their other frames in hopes of reaching someone whom could pass on information to Emillie or Harry. They knew that Dumbledore was crazy and Tom Riddle was just as crazy if not more so; the only hope, they believed, for the Wizarding world was for both Riddle and Dumbledore to be removed from power and for a new law to be enacted.

Dumbledore was still pacing is office as the clock chimed two in the morning. He seemed to be plotting, at least that's what it sounded like from the few phrases the portraits were able to pick out from his unceasing mumblings; as to what he was plotting, they could only guess. The only thing they knew is that they had lots of information and they needed to get it to someone within Harry's and Emillie's group fast if the information was to be of any use.

At nearly three in the morning an owl arrived; this owl sent Dumbledore into another frenzy, but at this he seemed happy.

"Potter Manor! Why didn't I think of that? But where? Where is it?"

Potter Manor, well then, a trip to the portrait of Henry James Potter Sr. was in order. There might be some hope for their campaign after all, but first a bit of inconveniencing of a certain annoying headmaster was in order.

Over the next few days Dumbledore's life within Hogwarts became much harder, much to the delight of a group of Sixth Year Slytherin students. It would have seemed that Hogwarts herself had rebelled against the headmaster. First, his office would change locations, often times not letting him enter; then the house elves refused to wash his robes, clean his chambers, or cook the types of food he preferred. These small rebellions turned into an all out war against the headmaster, a war that the Slytherins of any age were more than happy to join.

"What do you mean 'there's no trace of them'? I told you to find them! What happened to the tracker spell on her?"

"My lord, we were able to track them as far as the Scotland border but after that there is no trace. Nothing in Scotland, England, Ireland; nothing on the mainland nor in Wales. We've sent people to the Americas, Asia; anywhere we might think they would go." Bella said, groveling at her master's feet.

"Then why haven't you found HER!" He shouted jumping to his feet.

"We are trying my lord. We will get your daughter back. I promise!"

"Then go and fucking do it!"

Bella scurried out of the room, bent in two with her hands covering her head. Tom sat down heavily in his chair, all he wanted was to correct the mistake he had made nearly 17 years earlier, but now he couldn't seem to do that, she kept running from him-hiding away, potting to over throw him. He knew that she wanted his power, his position. She wanted everything from him, she hated him, wanted him dead, he knew that she would kill him so he was determined to kill her first. He will remove all things standing in his path so that he could turn the Wizarding World into the type of world he wanted. Nothing will stand in his way!

Emillie must die.

Harry must die.

Everyone must die in order for him to live.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 **'The Calm'

Days passed slowly for in inhabitants of the Potter Manor: Severus and Draco had locked themselves away studying the tapestry for clues of the potion, James had been exploring the grounds on one of the numerous brooms he had discovered, Lucius was exploring the vastness of the library with Emily studying different means of magical warfare, and Harry, well Harry was bored out of his mind. After the three days of healing Severus put him threw in order to correct all of the injuries he had sustained during his time at Hogwarts, he had nothing to do. He was use to studying for a few hours a day and then spending the following hours out in the sun practicing on his broom, but without Draco to practice with him this soon lost its appeal on the Potter grounds. Harry was currently pacing around the library, thoroughly annoying Lucius, Emillie, and the house elves that were assisting them.

"Harry!" Emillie finally exclaimed after Harry's eighth lap of the extensive library. "Why don't you go and fly with James?"

"He's just going over the same section of the grounds; he won't even tell me what he's looking for!"

"What about Draco and Severus?" Lucius said coming up to the teens.

"Draco said all I was good for was cleaning their equipment." Harry said sullenly. Emillie let out a small snort of laughter, which she tried in vain to cover up with a coughing fit.

"What? Do you think that I'm not good at potions?" Harry asked, whirling on Emillie.

"Harry, hun…" Emillie began, trying desperately to stifle her laughing. "We all know you can brew a good potion but Draco and Severus are the best. You have always been better at defense."

"Lot of good that is doing me now, everyone has something to do but me."

"Why don't you look up some new defense spells?"

"I've already been through half the books here on defense. There's nothing new to learn there."

"How about you helping me then?"

"What good will that due?"

"Harry," Lucius drawled coming to stand behind Emillie's chair. "Surely there is something that pulls your interest other than badgering young Miss Riddle?"

Harry shot Lucius an evil glare before heading into the depths of the library to find some little use book that might hold a new spell that could just capture his attention long enough to renew the patience of the others in the manor.

The weeks past slowly for everyone, even those whom had something to occupy their time with, no news of the outside had been heard. James had said on several occasions that 'no news was good news' but after the fifth week of not having any news he began to worry as well. They had spies within both groups, Remus was included in the group of spies at Hogwarts.

After the little display that Dumbledore had put on after he had lost both Harry and McGonagall, Remus started to question the headmaster's sanity. Hogwarts herself had turned against the Headmaster bring joy and amusement to many of the students who had been terrorized or shunned because of the Headmaster's influence. It took less than a week for Remus to decide that he would find out his own information rather than rely on the information that Dumbledore had provided. What he found he did not like, secrets and lies surrounded the Headmaster like flies around a rotting hunk of meat. Remus was discouraged to find out that all of the suffering that had been going on in the Wizarding World the last seventeen years could have all been avoided had the Headmaster simply talked with others rather than forming his own ideas of what was going on.

The Potter's did not abandon their friends, they met an unexpected bump in the road which changed their lives forever. They had even tried to explain what had happened to Sirius but Dumbledore had gotten to him first, both had lied to Remus, telling him that members of his pack had left him for good. The anger of losing his friends and members of his adoptive pack haunted Remus and his wolf for nearly twenty years, but now the anger was correctly directed.

Remus had been working on converting Sirius but Sirius was being his normal stubborn self and refusing to listen to Remus, wanting instead to believe in Dumbledore like he always had. That is until one cold night in the middle of March.

Sirius was doing his rounds in the castle near the headmaster's office, they had had many of the first and second year students trying to break into the headmaster's office to play pranks or to simply make a mess, so the corridor had been added onto the nightly rounds. Sirius was just about enter the corridor which head the entrance to the headmaster's office when he heard voices lofting down the hall.

"What do you mean they haven't been seen in nearly three months? I thought you had tracks on them! I made sure the Riddle bitch had one when she left!"

"I-I'm s-s-sorry sir. But n-n-nothing has b-b-been f-found. They were l-last seen in the n-north but the area has been s-s-searched many t-times w-w-with nothing found."

"I want them found now! The blasted Potter boy must be the one to kill Voldemort!"

Sirius recognized the first voice has Dumbledore's and the second was Peter's. He stood in shock, Dumbledore had told him that Peter had followed James to the dark side, as it were, and was lost to them forever. But here he was, spying for Dumbledore.

"Any news from Voldemort?" Dumbledore inquired once he had gotten his anger back under control.

_What? Peter is a spy for both? What the fuck!_ Sirius thought angrily. He had been told that two of his best friends had turned against them, but here was proof that Dumbledore had lied to him. Peter was weak, everyone knew that, he searched out the most powerful person he could in order to find protection. Sirius continued to listen, apparently Voldemort had launched his own search party for the girl and her followers, but he did not seem to want her alive. As the conversation continued Sirius began to realize the full extent of Dumbledore's madness.

"They need to be found! Once their part is finished so will be their lives and I don't want them alive any longer than need be! They are already gaining power and if this mess is not cleaned up by the end of July there will be no stopping them! They will destroy our world without even thinking! Find them!" Dumbledore thundered before Sirius heard Dumbledore's footsteps heading his way down the hall. Sirius quickly hid himself down a darken hallway and waited until he could no longer hear the anger foot falls of the aging Headmaster nor the ragged breathing of Peter. Once he was sure he was alone, he made his way down to Remus's rooms on the fifth floor.

"There's an owl!" Emillie said, looking out of the Dining Hall's windows onto the front lawns of Potter Manor. James, Severus, Lucius and Harry, who had all been enjoying a quiet breakfast with Emillie, turned to look out the window as well. It had been nearly a month and a half since any news was heard from their Hogwarts' spies, their allies within Voldemort's ranks had informed them that the search for Emillie had turned towards the Americas, safely away from the European borders.

"That looks like Remus's owl." James said, hurrying to stand up and open a window for the tired animal. A blast of cold March air blew through the open window as the barn owl drifted in and settled on the oak table. The owl was clearly exhausted and gladly ate the food that a house elf had provided. James took the thick roll of parchment from the owl's leg and began to read, as he read a smile that had started small at the start of the letter became bigger as his eyes traveled down the page. By the end of the letter, James's face had broken out into a full blown grin.

"Good news?" Lucius asked, a bit unnecessarily.

"Very good news." James answered. "It's from Remus, things are starting to turn around for us at Hogwarts?"

"Really?" Severus asked, finally looking up from his meal.

"Yes. Apparently more and more of the professors are begining to question Dumbledore's ability to lead."

"Well that is good news." Severus said.

"And," James went on. "Sirius has finally started to see reason."

Harry smiled along with his father, he had been told many stories of his godfather and father when they were at Hogwarts. News that his father's long lost friend was finally starting to see reason brought a true smile to James's face, something that had been rarely seen, which made Harry smile all the more.

"So will this place be overrun with mutts in the near future?" Severus sneered with a friendly undertone.

"Possibly, and you will just have to deal with it."

"Well, I could just appeal to Harry and get him to ban them."

"Enough," Emillie interrupted the playful banter as James was about to retort. "How many people are starting to question Dumbledore?"

James reread the letter quickly, shaking his head. "He doesn't say exactly, all he says is 'numerous professors and students have started to show their displeasure with the esteemed headmaster…small rebellions have sprung up within in the different houses, most notably among the upper class Slytherins. Even Hogwarts herself has shown her displeasure with the Headmaster. I believe that soon more and more people will become aware of the cunning schemes of the Headmaster.'"

"That is promising news." Minerva said, walking in the dining hall and sitting down. "I knew that my colleagues weren't all imbeciles." Emillie smirked at this.

"So, what's our next move? Storm Hogwarts?" Harry asked, a dark gleam in his eye as he thought about payback for what the headmaster had put Emillie and himself through.

"No, not yet." Emillie said, deep in thought. "We need to make sure that these people are actually on our side and not spying for Dumbledore."

"How?" Harry asked, looking at his betrothed.

"There's a spell. Not exactly what we need…but if I…yes then it should work." Emillie said, still deep in thought.

"Em, what are you thinking?" James asked, getting as flustered as his son.

"Where's Draco?"

"I left him in the lab, he was working on a…hey where is she off to?" Severus asked, as Emillie ran from the room half way through his explanation.

"To find Draco apparently." Lucius said, sipping his tea.

"I need to write Remus, his owl is still here." James said absent mindedly, summoning a house-elf to him. "I need parchment, a quill and ink." He said to the elf, who bowed and popped away.

As James was waiting for the elf, a leaf of paper popped in front of his eyes, startling everyone in the hall.

James,

Tell Remus that we are excited for his news and that we await more promising tidings. Also, tell him that Draco and I are working on a way to test the loyalty of those who are claiming to switch sides. Be prepared within the month. James-code this, I don't have time.

-Em

"Well, that explains what she's up to." James said after reading the note aloud. The elf returned with James's requested parchment, quill and ink, when another loud pop sounded in the hall, startling everyone once more. James picked up the second piece of parchment and read;

Send Harry to the lab.

-Em

And Sev!

-DM

"Well, you two have your marching orders," James laughed setting the note down next to the first one. The two men rose from their seats and made their way to Severus's lab. Lucius's eyes followed his long time friend and the raven haired teen until the oak doors hide their forms from eye sight.

"What do you think Em has planed?" Lucius asked the two remaining adults.

"Whatever it may be, I promise you Dumbledore will not have foreseen it." Minerva said, returning to her breakfast, James snorted as he began his letter.

Severus led Harry down to the lab at a brisk pace, forcing Harry to jog at some intervals just to keep up. Everyone knew the importance of being able to tell who was really one their side and who was not, and Harry was glad for the opportunity to finally be of assistance but Severus seemed to be even more insistent on arriving at the lab as soon as humanly possible. When the two finally reached the lab where Draco and Emillie had sequestered themselves in, they found Draco and Emillie hunched over several pieces of parchment splattered with ink.

"So, what can we do t help?" Harry asked, looking over Emillie's shoulder to see what she was scribbling on the parchment.

"Huh, oh good…Harry…uh Draco what if we change this part here?"

"Well…maybe…or that could turn everyone into mindless zombies bent on the destruction of the world."

"Zombies? Really Draco?" Harry asked. Draco and Emillie continued to ignore both Harry and Severus as they continued to talk to each other in clipped sentences, which they seemed to understand but Severus and Harry were left in the dark.

"Well Harry, might as well take a seat and wait for them to acknowledge our presence." Severus said, sitting down in one of the unused chairs.

Severus and Harry sat, watching Emillie and Draco work for nearly an hour before either one of them realized that they had company.

"Harry!" Emillie exclaimed. "I asked you down here nearly an hour ago! What took you so long?" Harry starred at her dumbfounded.

"But…I…"

"Oh never mind. Come here!" Emillie said annoyed, pulling Harry towards the opposite side of the room. "Now just stand here…and don't move."

"Um…ok. Um Em?"

"Hmm...?"

"What are you gonna do to me?"

"Test a theory."

"Wait! What are you gonna test on me?"

"Don't worry Harry, it's relatively harmless."

"Relatively?" Harry squeaked.

"Ready Draco?" Emillie asked, ignoring Harry. Draco nodded, looking up from the papers he was still pouring over.

"Sev, you need to stand over there," Draco said, pointing to the opposite side of room from where Harry was standing.

"And may we know what it is you plan on doing?" Severus asked as he walked over the spot that Draco indicated.

"We're testing a theory."

"And what Miss Riddle is this theory you keep mentioning?"

"Huh? Oh, um we are assuming that truth is hidden within electronic impulses within the brain. We've been working on a potion-spell combination that forces people not only to tell the truth, but also realizing what they believe the truth is." Emillie said.

"This will allow us to not only find out who is really on our side, and to help people who aren't sure what side they are on to decide what side they truly believe in." Draco finished.

"Couldn't this be really dangerous?" Harry asked.

"Well, yes. If it falls into the wrong hands, but you have to have both the potion and the spell to make this work. And you have to know the correct amount of potion to spell to body mass for each person to make the spell work properly. And those items are on different sheets of paper, and will be stored separately. Along with that, Draco only knows how to make the potion, and I only know how to work the spell. There is a third potion that has to be made to calculate the correct ratios, Draco known the first half, and I know the second half."

"You see, if someone wants to get their hands on this, they would need both of us to do it. Along with the sheets of parchment."

"And how did you develop this together if you two only know half of what this is."

"We obviated some parts of our memories so that we can only remember half of the process. And before you ask, another little spell of mine. It completely removes any part of the memory of your choosing. Nothing can replace is or bring it back. It's like it never existed in the first place. Now, anymore questions?"

"Um, Em? Is this gonna hurt?"

"Not too much I don't think. Now, I need you both to drink this." She handed Harry, and then Severus a small flask of clear liquid, which both drank reluctantly.

"Now, don't move." Emillie said again, and then closed her eyes.

"What's she doing?" Harry asked. Draco shushed him with a look.

Emillie continued to concentrated, power swelled between her hands, a glowing pale yellow light. Slowly she raised her head, eyes closed, toward the ceiling. The color of the light between her hands began to fade, and continued to fade until it was pure white light. From some unknown signal that the others could not determine, Emillie's eyes flew open and she pulled her hands up the center of her front then snapped them out to her sides, pointing at Harry and Severus. A beam of light left each of her hands, connecting with the men's forehead. The light pulsed between Emillie and the men, nearly blinding Draco. The spell lasted for nearly twenty minutes before the light finally dimed before disappearing completely. Fortunately Draco was paying attention, now that the light was no longer in the room to blind him, and he raced to catch Emillie before she dropped to the floor.

Harry and Severus were also worn out from the spell but they were still standing unlike Emillie, who was being carried over to a couch by Draco.

"Draco, what on earth was that?" Harry asked, flabbergasted.

"That was the spell. If it worked correctly, Em will know if you are hiding, anything within the memories she looked threw. And by the time she spent, I would say that she only looked at a maybe a dozen different memories each."

"Only a dozen? And the spell did that to her?"

"It's the first time she's used the spell! And she was performing it on the two of you. It's a draining spell."

"How long until she wakes up?"

"I have no idea." Draco said, sounding concerned and running his wand along the length of Emillie's body. Severus stepped up, gently pushing Draco aside so that he can begin to run his own diagnostic spells on Emillie.

"She is worn out, both magically and physically. She will need hours of sleep and a few different replenishing potions before she will be back to normal."

"How long?" Harry asked.

"No more than a week."

"A week! We need to find a different way to find out people's alliances!"

"Harry," Draco said, trying to sooth his friend. "She will get better at it; the spell will become easier and won't take such a toll on her. "

"Find another way!" Harry growled as he swept down to pick up Emillie and took her up to her room, leaving a startled Severus and Draco in his wake. James passed his agitated son as he walked into the lab to find out the results of their test.

"What is he upset about and what's wrong with Emillie?"

"He's just pissed about the effects the spell had on Em."

"Well, what happened?"

"She's just over did it with the spell. She's just tired, and will be fine." Draco answered, turning his back from James and started to clean up the lab.

"Did it work?"

"We won't know until Em wakes up, but I'm starting to second guess my reasoning behind my dislike of spinach." Severus answered.

"Is that supposed to happen?"

"Yes. The spell is designed to force a person to start to question their opinions that they are 100% sure of. If Sev is questioning his dislike of spinach then some part of himself is not 100% sure that he does not like it. Along with that, the caster is able to find out if a person is loyal to a cause or an idea."

"So now Em knows what Severus is loyal to and he is questioning he dislike of spinach?" James asked.

"To an extent. She didn't hold the spell as long as would be required to pick threw all of his memories but from what I've seen the spell worked. She just has to practice with it more and that way she won't get a tired and the spell won't take as long. If Harry ever calms down this will work and we can finally start building our forces to move against Dumbledore and her father."

"Sirius are you sure you want to do this? I can't promise that you will come out of this unharmed."

"I have to know! I want things to go back to the way things were. Don't you want your pack back Remmy?"

"You know I do, but I don't want my mate to be harmed in the process."

"I trust you. Remove any trace of Dumbledore's power over me and then we can rejoin our pack."

"If this is what you want." Remus said quietly, he leaded in and gently kiss Sirius. "Now, just relax."

Sirius relaxed in the chair he was seated in, while Remus raised his wand and pointed it Sirius's forehead. A quick flash of blue light and Remus was immersed into Sirius's mind, slowly searching for any indication that there was an outside force working in his mate's mind. After many long minutes Remus found something in a small corner of Sirius's mind. There was a ball of pulsing black magic which had tendrils of the same black magic branching out into the rest of his mind.

"Well here goes nothing Sirius."

Remus raised his wand and started to battle with the black magic.

Thirty minutes later Remus woke up, groggy, he looked to see how Sirius had faired through the long battle but Sirius was still passed out in the chair.

"Sirius?" Remus asked, gently shaking Sirius's arm. "Siri? Siri! Wake up! Siri!"

**Hey everyone, I am so sorry for the incredibly long delay between chapters. There is really no excuse other than college. Please enjoy this chapter and please tell me what you think. :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9** "The Rumbles"

A week, well not even that, 5 days had passed since Emillie's first run with the new spell and her subsequent coma like state. It took her two days to wake up and in that time, Harry had worked himself into quiet the state of agitation. He hardly left Emillie's side, snapping at the house-elves who came with food and tea several times a day, and when he did leave Emillie's bedside, he would snap at anyone and everyone who came by him. Harry's comments were so rude to Draco that Draco forwent his wand in favor of his fist to break Harry's nose. It took ten minutes along with James and Severus to separate the boys, afterwards Harry returned to Emillie's room and Draco to the dungeons. Now, three days after Emillie had awaken, with a bad case of the munchies, the inhabitants of Potter Manor were longing for the days when the walls were rattled with sounds of Emillie and her father fighting.

"What the fuck do you mean you _forbid me_?" Emillie spat out, her voice starting to slip into Parseltounge.

"Just what I said! I will not have my betrothed performing such dangerous magic!" Harry yelled back, his magic starting to lash out against the aged wood of the front hall.

"I hate to tell you this _Master Harry, but I take orders from no one! Especially one with so little training!_" Emillie retorted, her voice fully slipping into the snake language in her rage.

"_As little training as me_?" Harry responded in kind. "_We had the same training_! _In fact, I have a better understanding of how these battles should be waged because I've actually been in the real world_!"

"_Real world_?_ Real world_!" Emillie sneered, her magic joining with Harry's as it pulsed away from her in anger. "_Hogwarts hardly counts as real world_. _Now that I think about it_, _maybe I should take an extended walk through your mind so that I know you are trustworthy_."

"How could you even think that!" Harry exclaimed, so started that his speech switched back into English. "You know you can trust me!"

"Is that _so_? Then why do you want me to perform the _spell_? Could it be because you have _something_ to hide? _Is_ that it? Are you not _as_ loyal _as _you claim? Or did you have _some _na_sty_ little affair while at that _school_?" Emillie questioned, still unable to control her speech pattern as much as Harry was able to.

Magic lashed out around them, pulling paint and plaster from the walls, occupants of the painting hanging in the front hall ran screaming from their frames into others further down the hall, but as the pair's anger grew so did their magic which forced the animated painting to try to find shelter further down the hall.

The entire house shook with the force of their anger magic. There was nothing much that could be done by the others in the manor; they sat in a 'safe' room much like they did at Riddle Manor waiting for the onslaught of power to ebb. And it always did, sometimes as early as noon sometimes as late as 4 the next morning. The only thing that was known for sure was that it will end at some point, bringing peace to the others in the manor, and that Minerva was the only one who could break up the fighting if it escalated to the point of nearly destroying the manor itself, which had happened twice already.

Twelve hours. That's it. Just twelve hours of peace before the fighting started again. The night before had ended with Harry leaving. The fight this morning started with Harry confronting Emillie, and she had had enough. Magic whipped around her, twice as strong as it was the night before.

"Are we really going to start this again?" She snapped, a window shattering behind her.

"It was never finished!"

"You walked away!"

"Doesn't mean I wasn't finished with this! You aren't doing it again!"

"Damnit Harry! Don't you see! We have to have this spell!"

"No we don't! There has to be another way!"

"There is no other way! We are going up against two of the most powerful men in the world and we need every spell we can find so we can defeat them!"

"Find another way." Harry hissed, stepping closer to Emillie.

"This is the other way, and you'll just have to get use to that." With that she pushed past Harry and stormed down the hall, magic still pulsing around her.

An hour later, explosions and crashes could still be heard from the vicinity of Emillie's training rooms as she vented her anger on the practice dummies instead upon the vertex of her anger.

While Emillie had locked herself in her training rooms and then her personal bedroom and lab, Harry had found is way outside and in the air. He spent hours after the second fight flying around the grounds practicing new moves to be used in games, well if he ever got to play again. As Harry flew, he thought. He thought about how much his life had changed in the last few years, and here he was, nearly seventeen fighting a war on two fronts with little or no outside support. There had to be a way to get back into the school to gain some sympathy for their side. Harry thought about other teens his age, most of Slythern house was out, they blindly followed their parents, though there was Pansy. She always seemed to have more brains than other Death Eater children, and she and Draco were rather close growing up. Not as close as he was with Emillie and Harry, but still rather close. She might be a good person to contact for an inside person at Hogwarts, if they could trust her. Trust. That stupid spell. Harry's anger flared again as he thought about what had happened the first time Emillie had attempted the spell. There had to be another way to discover who was loyal and who was not.

Other conventional spells could be lied to, Severus, his father and Lucius were proof of that. So they had to find a new spell, but the spell-potion combo that Draco and Emillie had come up with seemed to be way to dangerous to try, next time it might kill on of them.

Harry hadn't realized it but he had been hovering in the air for ten minutes as he thought, nor did he realized that his father and flown up next to him. James's first words of "Knut for your thoughts" startled Harry quiet badly, so much so that he nearly fell of his broom from his jump of shock.

"Ok there, son?" James asked once Harry was firmly seated back on is broom.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"Care to share?"

Harry shrugged, looking off into the distance. "It's just…everything. I mean how did it come to this? We have all but declared war against the two strongest men in the world with two of the largest wizarding armies, and what do we have? A dream and a spell that could kill Emillie." Now that Harry was talking, he didn't seem able to stop. James sat silently on his broom, allowing his son to vent his feelings without interruption. "I mean what are we doing? What happened? This isn't how it was suppose to go."

"I know son. Very few things in life go according to plan."

"Dad can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Why did Riddle have Emillie?"

James didn't say anything for a while, trying to think of the best way of answering his son's question. Simple denial of the truth wouldn't work, Harry was to old to believe that, but James's wasn't even sure if he fully understood Riddle's motivation. At the time of her conception there was little to no conflict between Riddle and Dumbledore, James always had a sinking suspicion that Riddle had planed the entire war years before Emillie was born.

"I have my suspicions."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

"Did he love her?"

"I believe at one time he did, every father loves their child, some more than others."

"Do you love her?"

"Like she was my own. Draco too."

"Luc? Sev?"

"Again, yes. They love all three of you."

"Will you help me?"

"I will always help you. But in what matter are you asking about?"

"Protect her."

"She is perfectly capable of protecting herself."

"Not from herself."

"Son," James said, moving slightly closer to put his hand on Harry's shoulder. "I will always be here for you, Emillie, Draco, Luc and Sev. And they will always be there for you."

It took nearly three days for Emillie to fully clam down, after a total three hours of fighting Harry had finally stormed off to his wing which reduced the amount of concentrated power. Yet, James and Minerva were still working to fixed the damage that the manor had sustained. After Emillie had vented some of her pent up anger, she got to work. She was held up in her room for a day and a half bent over sheets of parchment, her face and fingers splattered with ink. Every so often, there would be a burst of light that would glow around the cracks in the door and then disappear. No one knew what she was up to and they were kind of fearful to ask.

"Draco," Emillie said a month after the first attempt of the spell. "I want to work on it again."

"Em, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Harry made it quiet clear about his feeling about…"

"I know. I know. But I think I know what went wrong."

"Really?" Draco asked, sounding more interested.

"Yeah, I went back over the spell work and I fixed this one part so that it can be performed on one person at a time instead of having to do two or more. Less energy and magic will be needed. It will give me time to build up my magic stores so I can do it on multiple people."

"Let me see that."

"Draco, no!"

"Why not?"

"Because then I'd have to remove your memories again and removing something like this more than once can only cause brain damage. You'll just have to trust me on this."

"But…well fine…as long as you're sure about that."

"I am. Let's get Sev and test this out."

Emillie lead the Draco down the hall, they found Severus bent over a steaming potion in one of the many labs in the manor. After explaining the new plan, and spending nearly an hour convincing Severus to go along with the plan, the threesome found themselves in an old dinning hall. Severus had his wand pointed at Emillie, running diagnostic spells to insure that Emillie was completely healed from her first attempt. After ten minutes of checking Emillie, Severus was finally satisfied. He then pointed his want at Draco and repeated his previous actions.

"Sev is this really necessary?" Emillie asked as the Potion Master cast yet another spell on Draco.

"It is if you think that I will allow you to continue with this test." Severus said slowly, more paying attention to the results of his latest test rather than on Emillie.

"You've been at it for nearly 30 minutes. I think you should be satisfied."

Severus was silent for a moment, fishing with one last spell on Draco and comparing the results. Severus vanished the papers floating in front of him and lowered his wand.

"Now I am satisfied. You may commence."

"Finally!" Emillie groaned out. "Draco get into position."

Remus walked quietly down the halls of the ancient school, looking over his shoulder every so often to ensure that he was not being followed by unsavory eyes. A hand shot out from behind a tapestry, grabbing Remus's robes and pulling him into the hidden hallway.

"Took you bloody well long enough." The gruff voice said. "Has there been any word from…them?"

"Sirius, you are a fool. You know that right?"

"Stop fooling around."

"They are working on something, a spell of some sort, to help us fight against them…or find out who is loyal. The details were clouded."

"What do we need to do?"

"Something we have been doing. Keep our heads down and try to find out who doesn't want to follow either of them."

"Easier said than done."

"I know. Have you been given any trouble?"

"Not yet. You?"

"No. But it's only a matter of time."

"I know. I wonder how long we shall be safe here."

"Not too much longer I would think. I've been given a potkey for when the time comes."

Sirius nodded his head, looking down in thought.

"I never thought that it would come to this. When did our worlds become so twisted, so divided between squabbling men, like the warlords of old."

"My friend I do not know, but there will come a time when all of this will be a distance memory and we shall be living in peace. But for now, we must go before anyone finds us."

"I hope you are right, my friend. I'll see you soon."

Sirius let Remus leave first, heading in the same direction that he had originally been traveling. Five minutes later Sirius finally left, heading down a different hall. He knew that he needed to write a letter to James, he just needed to find the perfect spell to conceal the words.

James continued to sit on his broom long after his son had left. Seventeen years, such a long time but at the same time, not long enough. So many people have died already and he was sure that more were to come.

"Lils, I wish you were here to see this place," James whispered, looking out over his ancestral home. "You would love it, it's simply beautiful."

James's eye caught a small dark figure fly towards him. He drew his wand and positioned himself into a fighting stance on his broom. As the figure got closer, it hardly got any bigger, by the time it was twenty feet away, James relaxed. It was just an owl. The common barn owl flew closer until finally landing on the tip of James's broom and holding out it's leg for James to take the letter it carried.

"Thank you." James said as he took the offered letter, and then the bird flew off.

Slowly James opened the letter, wary of any spells or curses that might be concealed within, but the letter was clean of harmful enchantments.

Prongs,

Hey, sorry about getting you into detention…but so worth it! Did you see McGonagal's face? Priceless! I wish I had picture of that to frame! Have you made any headway with Evans? I think I might know a place in the village that she might like, it's a little shop where you go and paint things and then charm the paint to move and dance. Apparently the owners a muggle-borns from America and muggles do a similar thing where they paint pottery and then take it home. Apparently it's a great place for a date, and Evans does love Charms. Just thought I would give you that idea. I'll see you at dinner.

Mischief Managed

Padfoot.

Well that was odd. It was a letter that Sirius had sent him in their seventh year at school. But why would it be sent to him now, twenty years later. _Mischief Managed_, that hadn't been in the original letter, James's was nearly sure it hadn't. They never said that outside of the four of them, and never put it on paper.

Going on a hunch, James said "Mischief managed" but nothing happened. Pulling out his wand he said it again, and again nothing happened. Thinking fast and with his wand still out, James said "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good" and he watched as the letters on the letter began to move about the page.

James,

I really hope for your sake that you didn't spend an hour trying to figure out how to open this letter, if you did prepare for ridicule next time I see you.

First, I have to say I am so sorry. I should have trusted you and Lils and been there for my godson. I hope you can forgive me old friend. I have so many questions, and not enough answers at the moment.

Remus has explained everything to me, well everything he can and everything that he understands. We're working on finding people for your side and so far I think we're at the two hundred mark, both teachers and students. I'm going to tell remus of this spell so we can communicate with each other.

The spell is 'Mutare charta.' Fairly simple really, just had to tweak our original spell a little.

Tell Emillie and harry I am sorry, for everything and that I will find a way to make it up to them and that I hope they will forgive me as well, well as I hope you will forgive me.

Sirius

James sat and stared at the letter, Remus had told him that Sirius had started to change his mind about everything but this was a complete change. It gave James hope that things were starting to turn around for them and that people were beginning to realize that they had been lied to, on both fronts.

James headed back to the Manor, flying slowly in order to think about what he had just read. He needed to find a way to help his friends, more than just the spell, a spell that Harry will probably never allow Emillie to try again. Speaking of the girl, where was she? James, now in the front hall went looking for her to see how she was doing. After thirty minutes of looking he finally found someone, but not who he was looking for.

"Luc, have you seen Em? Or for that matter anyone?"

"Harry came back a while ago and I think that he's in the training room. Minerva is in the Transfiguration library and I would assume that Draco and Sev were in the labs. But as for Emillie, I have no idea." Lucius said, looking up from his book. "Why?"

"I just haven't seen her in a while and I might have a new project for her."

"What project?"

As an answer, James handed Lucius the letter, which still showed the true message.

"Well that's interesting but I have yet to see what the new project is."

"I was thinking that we need to come up with a new spell or weapon that can be used from within the walls of Hogwarts. If the numbers that Sirius said are true, there are a lot of people in there that could get hurt if we don't play our cards right."

"A weapon you say? Yes, I think that would be something right up Emillie's ally and it would get her away from that crazy spell/potion mix that nearly killed her."

"Exactly. I know she wants it to work but I'm just not sure that it's worth it."

"What did you have in mind for the weapon?"

"Hogwarts is almost like a being of her own. We need to get the wands of the founders to wake her up."

"Wands of the founds? James that's a myth. They've been long gone fore centuries."

"See, I don't think that they are. When we were in school the castle seemed to help us whenever we were about to get caught. There were be a doorway, or a hall that would close behind us so that we could lose whomever was chasing us. When we pulled a prank that the castle seemed to like, the halls would brighten and everything would sparkle. When we went too far over the line, well, she wouldn't let us forget it for a long time."

"But what makes you think that the wands still exist?"

"Research that Lils did. Some of her research made it sound like old castles such as Hogwarts could only interact with its occupants if the wands of those who built the castle resided in the building."

"James, if this is true we could already be in control of one of the most powerful buildings."

"What do you mean?"

"Em's wand. Didn't you ever wonder were her wand came from?"

"I figured Tom had it made for her."

"It wasn't made for her, and Tom didn't have it made. It was in his vaults."

"Who's wand is it?"

"Slytherin's."

Draco stood 10 feet away from Emillie, an empty flask in his pocket. Emillie stood facing him, head bowed and hands held loosely next to her.

"Em," Sev's low voice carried across the large room. "Are you sure that you've fixed the spell correctly?"

"Well, we're about to find out aren't we."

With that Emillie began to call her magic around her. The yellow balls of light grew around her hands until the light wholly consumed her hands. Her hands shot out in front of her, the light joining into on large ball of light between her outstretched hands. As time passed, the color of the spell started to darken until it was a deep golden. Without an exterior signal, Emillie's head snapped up to face the ceiling, her hands moved to push the light away from her and into Draco. The light shot forward and blasted into Draco, making him stumble back a few steps, then engulfed him completely which gave him an otherworldly glow. Severus watched with trepidation, quick eyes searching for the first sign of distress within the two teens, but there was none. Draco had managed to regain his footing but kept his head bowed slightly, while Emillie remained unmoved. Two minutes later the light surrounding Draco began to dissipate, some returning back to Emillie's hands while most of it simply faded away. A moment later Draco slowly started moving, shaking his head slightly as if to clear it. It took Emillie another minute before she was completely conscious of her surroundings. Looking around she took in the faces of the two other men in the room. Severus had moved closer to her incase she needed help.

"Em, are you alright?"

"Yeah…yeah I am. Why do you too look so worried?"

"Em, are you sure you're alright?" Draco asked again.

"Yes, what's gotten into you too. You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Em, look at your robes."

"What's wrong with my robes? Emillie asked looking down. Her robes, which had be a plan black set of work robes were now emerald green. The fit close to her body, with ornate silver embroidery covering them. She ran her hand over the rich silk, there was now a high collar that gave way to a plunging neckline, exposing most of her upper body but still giving her ample coverage and support. The sleeves her close fitted around her upper arm then flared from there, much like the skirt of the robe did around her knees. Even her hair, which had be let down, was now up in an interact up do with bits of jewels reflecting the light, and her shoes were now knee high heeled boots. She was also covered in centuries old jewelry.

"Sev," Emillie said starting to sound a bit scared. "What's going on?"

"I think…" Severus said slowly. "I think that you have just been named the heir of Slytherin."


End file.
